Russia-Ukraine meeting in Turkey achieves no progress
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – No progress was achieved regarding a ceasefire in the first high-level meeting held in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine.
Early on Thursday, a meeting was held between the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba in Turkey on the ceasefire.
Kuleba said Ukraine was ready for diplomacy but also able to defend itself as it appeared that Russia would fight on and was seeking a surrender from Kyiv.
“We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions to put an end to this war, but we will not surrender,” Kuleba told reporters.
For its part, the Kremlin said it would stop the war if Ukraine ceased military action, enshrined in its constitution that it had no plans to join NATO, gave up annexed Crimea and recognized the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.
Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who brokered the meeting, had said that the aim of the meeting was to pave the way for talks between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy, facilitated by Recep Tayip Erdoğan.
Turkey, which shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea and has good ties with both, has called Russia’s invasion unacceptable and appealed for an urgent ceasefire but has opposed sanctions on Moscow.
While forging close ties with Russia on energy, defense, and trade, and relying heavily on Russian tourists, Turkey has also sold drones to Ukraine, angering Moscow.