TÜRKIYE’S PRESIDENT ERDOGAN LIKELY TO MEET RUSSIA’S PUTIN THIS WEEK

Mon 02 May 2022:

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said that he will “most probably” have a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week.

Turkey‘s capital Ankara or Istanbul “would be the solution point for steps to be taken” to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine, Erdoğan told reporters after offering Eid prayers in Istanbul.

After two months of the beginning of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Russian troops intensified their attacks in eastern part of the war-ravaged country.

Ankara, which has friendly ties with both sides, is actively involved in diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia. It hosted delegation-level talks in Istanbul last month, and has reiterated the proposal for a leaders’ summit between Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on March 29 were seen as a breakthrough in the push to halt the hostilities that began on Feb. 24.

Earlier in March, Turkey also brought together the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in its southern resort city of Antalya, the first meeting of senior government officials from the two sides since the start of the war, now over two months old.

Turkish officials have also been engaging with their counterparts on the issue of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine to evacuate stranded civilians and wounded persons.

“We are taking all kinds of steps in the process of accelerating evacuations in Ukraine,” Erdoğan said.

Turkey has so far facilitated the evacuation of dozens of civilians from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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