Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu, speaking alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, said today that war in Ukraine must stop and that Ankara will continue peace efforts for a lasting ceasefire.
Addressing reporters after the meeting with Lavrov, Tsavusoglu said that Turkey, a NATO member, hopes that Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a step towards lasting peace.
“The war must stop, the people must not be killed. “I came here to Moscow today with this understanding,” Tsavousoglou said.
“We have shared our concerns honestly and we have done our duty to alleviate tensions and pave the way for diplomacy,” he said. “We would like to host this meeting (Putin-Zelensky) when the situation reaches this point … for a permanent ceasefire.”
Lavrov said there were no obstacles to a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, but that such a meeting would only take place to seal a specific agreement.
“There are no obstacles to holding such a meeting with the understanding that it will not be done just to be done; specific agreements are currently being sealed, which are currently being worked out by the two delegations,” the Russian foreign minister said.
Lavrov said the delegations were holding meetings via teleconferences.
Last week, Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba held talks in Turkey at the first such meeting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tsavousoglu said Turkey’s priority is to evacuate civilians who remain in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, as more than 15,000 Turks have already fled the country.
Any Putin-Zelensky meeting will be held only to seal a specific agreement, Lavrov says
Moscow says there are no obstacles to a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskybut that such a meeting would take place only to seal a specific agreement.
“There are no obstacles to holding such a meeting with the understanding that it will not be done just to be done; specific agreements are currently being sealed by the two delegations,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.
THE Lavrov said delegations meet through teleconferences.
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