Turkey welcomes the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Ukraine today, Thursday, for their first face-to-face meeting since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba will be received by Turkish Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu in Antalya, a southern seaside resort popular with Russian tourists.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has stepped up mediation efforts since the beginning of the crisis, said today that “Turkey can speak to Ukraine and Russia at the same time.”
“We are working to prevent the crisis from turning into a tragedy,” he insisted.
The two warring parties agreed yesterday (Wednesday), on a 12-hour ceasefire, around the humanitarian corridors in order to evacuate the civilians.
In a video posted on Facebook, Dmitro Kuleba said he would do everything possible to “make the talks as effective as possible”, while saying he had “limited expectations”.
“We do not have high hopes, but we will do everything to make the most of the talks,” he said, adding that “everything will depend on the instructions Lavrov has received before the talks.”
However, the climate is likely to be tense, as the Ukrainian minister recently called on CNN his Russian counterpart “modern Ribbentrop”, using the name of Hitler’s minister during World War II.
Antalya is Lavrov’s first exit from Russia, which has become increasingly isolated due to Western sanctions against it since the start of the war on February 24.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
