President Erdoğan invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Turkey for a meeting, and reiterated his stance to play a mediating role, stating that he was ready to hold peace talks involving Russia, which continues to invade Ukraine.
However, President Zelenskiy expressed his distrust of Russia and emphasized that talks would not take place for the time being.
On the 8th, President Erdoğan invited President Zelenskiy to Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, for a meeting.
Turkey has been leveraging its diplomatic relations with both Ukraine and Russia to broker an agreement to resume exports of Ukrainian agricultural products through the Black Sea, and the latest round of talks will see the agreement on shipping after Russia suspended implementation of the agreement in July last year. They discussed matters such as safe navigation and the exchange of prisoners of war.
At a joint press conference after the meeting, President Erdoğan stated, ``We will do our best to end the fighting through negotiations, and we are ready to hold peace talks in which Russia will also participate,'' reaffirming his stance to play a mediating role. I did.
On the other hand, President Zelenskiy expressed his distrust of Russia by saying, ``I don't know how we can invite those who will destroy and kill everything,'' and first talked about the peace plan proposed by Ukraine, which includes ``withdrawal of Russian troops.'' He emphasized the importance of reaching an agreement with Europe, the United States, and emerging countries.