Putin, Erdogan agree to organize next Russia-Ukraine meeting in Istanbul – office
New Delhi: Russian and Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to organize the next round of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul, the Turkish presidential office said on Sunday after their telephone conversation.
“During the call, the presidents discussed the latest developments in the Russian-Ukrainian war and the negotiating process. President Erdogan and President Putin agreed to organize the next meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul,” it said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that his country will continue its mediatory efforts to establish peace between Russia and Ukraine, the Turkish presidential office said.
“President Erdogan stressed the necessity of reaching truce and peace between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible, and of improving the humanitarian situation in the region. Erdogan added that Turkey will continue to make its contribution to this process,” it said.
Meanwhile, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation to the talks, wrote on his Telegram channel earlier on Sunday that a regular round on online talks with Ukraine was held on Sunday. The sides, in his words, agreed to meet offline on March 29-30.
The first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks was held in Belarus’ Gomel region on February 28. The talks lasted for five hours. The second round of talks was held on March 3 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in Belarus. The delegations met for the third round of talks on March 7, in the Brest region, also in Belarus. More rounds were held in the online format.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country, and to defeat nationalist armed units, which are directly responsible for genocide in Donbass.
(Vinayak)
