Ankara considers negotiations between Russia and Ukraine the only way to resolve the conflict and intends to support efforts to resume them.

This statement was made on Twitter by the official representative of the President of Turkey, Ibrahim Kalin.

“The only solution (to the conflict in Ukraine. -

RT

) is for everyone to support efforts aimed at achieving peace through negotiations, and not kindle a war,” he wrote on the social network.

According to Kalin, the visit of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Ukraine on August 18 is a continuation of Ankara's diplomatic initiatives.

Fahrettin Altun, head of the Turkish presidential administration's communications department, spoke in the same vein.

According to him, Ankara has demonstrated that it is in the "vanguard of diplomatic efforts" to achieve a ceasefire and organize peace talks between the parties.

"The international community must support these efforts to achieve peace and stability," he told Anadolu News Agency.

  • Presidents of Turkey and Ukraine, as well as the UN Secretary General

  • AP

  • © Evgeniy Maloletka

distant prospects

The head of Turkey himself spoke about the need to return to dialogue following trilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Lviv.

“We have indicated that the international community must take on more responsibility in order to revive the diplomatic process.

I maintain my belief that the war will eventually end at the negotiating table,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference on August 18.

According to him, Zelensky and Guterres agree with this provision, in connection with which the shortest path to dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv should be determined.

“I believe that negotiations can be resumed on the basis that were formed in Istanbul in March.

We are ready to once again play the role of an intermediary to provide all kinds of support to achieve this goal,” the Turkish leader stressed.

He also noted that Ankara will take part in the restoration of Ukraine's infrastructure destroyed as a result of the conflict.

A corresponding memorandum was signed between the countries, according to which Turkey will take Kharkov and the Kharkov region under the patronage.

At the same time, the office of the UN Secretary General does not show much optimism regarding the speedy resumption of dialogue between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

As Deputy Representative of the UN Secretary General Farhan Haq noted at a briefing on August 18, a peaceful settlement was discussed at a meeting in Lvov, but the prospect of achieving it is rather distant.

“As the Secretary General noted, he did discuss efforts to advance peace… Various initiatives are taking place, but we are still far from the point where we can talk about efforts to finally stop hostilities,” Haq said.

  • UN Headquarters in New York

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Veni

"There are no motives"

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the negotiations are obviously not interested, since the country's leadership each time puts more and more impracticable conditions for their resumption, experts say.

Thus, on August 5, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper said that negotiations with the Russian side are possible only with several tactical defeats of the Russian Federation.

It is allegedly impossible to reach an agreement with Moscow in a different way today, since it "will definitely refuse or try to deceive the contracting parties," he stressed.

Later, in an interview with Babel, Podolyak even called the negotiations with the Russian Federation at the current stage a defeat for Ukraine.

“Today, there is no motive for Ukraine to negotiate, since the intensity of the war and the possibility of winning this war is much more important than any situational pause.

For negotiations with the Russian Federation today will mean only one thing: Russia has won,” he said.

According to him, the price that Ukraine has already paid is much higher than "the possibility of a ceasefire today."

The adviser also stressed that Kyiv cannot get involved in another Minsk format.

In turn, Volodymyr Zelensky, at a press conference following a meeting with Erdogan and Guterres, said that the Ukrainian side would agree to a dialogue with Moscow only if the Russian military was withdrawn from the territory of the republic.

Otherwise, the Russian Federation cannot be trusted, he believes.

Meanwhile, Russia also does not see any prerequisites for the resumption of the negotiation process with Ukraine because of its position.

“The Ukrainian delegation of negotiators, as they say, left the radar.

There is currently no negotiation process in this regard.

The special military operation continues — continues until the set goals are achieved, ”said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, on August 8.

He stressed that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky is also unlikely for the time being, since delegations of negotiators should do their “homework” first.

Earlier, on August 3, Peskov noted that Russia "is really ready to solve the Ukrainian problem through diplomacy, but on its own terms."

  • Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul

  • RIA News

  • © Sergey Karpukhin

In addition, political scientists state that the West is also not in the mood to contribute to a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

In this regard, the actions of the United States, which continue to pump weapons into the country, are indicative.

Thus, on August 8, the Pentagon announced the allocation of a new $1 billion military aid package to Kyiv. It included ammunition for HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems and NASAMS mobile air defense systems (SAMs), Javelin anti-tank systems, Claymore anti-personnel mines, mortar systems, artillery shells and other ammunition and equipment.

In addition, US President Joe Biden decided to provide Kyiv with a $775 million military aid package, the White House said.

A memorandum has been posted on the administration website in which Biden delegates to the secretary of state to direct the allocation of up to $775 million in defense goods and services from the Pentagon to help Ukraine.

In addition, the US Department of Defense is considering the possibility of supplying Ukraine with new types of weapons that would supposedly change the situation on the battlefield in the southeast of the country.

As noted in the Russian Foreign Ministry in the first half of August, the total volume of US military assistance to Ukraine amounted to $ 9.8 billion since the beginning of Biden's presidential term.

Your interests

Experts interviewed by RT note that the Turkish leadership today is showing an increased interest in resolving the situation in Ukraine through negotiations, guided primarily by its own interests.

Orientalist Alexander Vavilov, professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, recalled that presidential elections will be held in the country next year, and the current head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is now doing everything to strengthen his authority as much as possible.

“Erdogan wants to score political points by demonstrating himself as an effective peacemaker.

It is important for him to show himself as an influential player in the foreign arena, who cares about the prestige of his country, while also helping his neighbors, ”the analyst explained in an interview with RT.

Political scientist Andrey Manoilo shares his opinion, noting that the Turkish president is very impressed with the role of an intermediary, which he has been called on not for the first time.

“This role brings him dividends.

If it is possible to resolve the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and Erdogan somehow turns out to be involved in this, then he will not fail to pay special attention to his merits in order to gain an advantage over political competitors and confirm that it was under him that Turkey became an influential regional player,” he said. Manoilo in conversation with RT.

In addition, Erdogan is interested in peace in Ukraine, as he invests money in this country, he pointed out.

There is already an agreement to build a plant for the production of Bayraktar drones in the republic, which provides a market for Turkish manufacturers, and Erdogan promised Zelensky to participate in the restoration of infrastructure in Ukraine, Manoilo recalled.

However, according to Alexander Vavilov, one should not expect an early resumption of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, since Kyiv itself and its patrons represented by the United States are not yet interested in them.

“Too much effort and money has already been invested in Ukraine.

Therefore, in the West it will be used as an anti-Russian tool to the end.

Negotiations can be discussed when the situation is already on the verge of collapse and the Ukrainians will not be able to offer any resistance, which is what is going on.

But in this case, we will already talk about the discussion of surrender, ”he explained.

A similar point of view is shared by Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In a RT commentary, he noted that the prospect of a Russian-Ukrainian dialogue to a greater extent depends on the desire of the West and Ukraine, because Russia is already ready for it.

“Here, I think, the question is not in the Russian Federation and Turkey, but in how long Washington and Brussels are ready to support Ukraine.

And we see that for the time being, the United States is passionate about the idea of ​​inflicting a strategic defeat on the Russian Federation and continuing to use Ukraine as a hotbed of tension near Russian borders and an instrument of containment.

The West is simply not ready to accept the victory of Russia in Ukraine: it will hit the conceit, first of all, the United States, undermine its leading position in the world and encourage other countries to be more resolute in defending their interests.

And the collective West, headed by the White House, does not need a polycentric world,” Blokhin concluded.