Turkey's Erdogan offers to host a peace summit with Russia during a visit from Ukraine's Zelenskyy
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose NATO-member country has sought to balance its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia, offered during a visit Friday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to host a peace summit between the two countries. Erdogan, who has repeatedly discussed brokering a peace deal, said at a news conference in Istanbul following his meeting with Zelenskyy that he hoped Russia would be on board with Turkey’s offer.
“Since the beginning, we have contributed as much as we could toward ending the war through negotiations," Erdogan said. "We are also ready to host a peace summit in which Russia will also be included." Zelenskyy said in a statement at the start of the meeting that he was grateful for Turkey’s support.
He said he was interested in strengthening bilateral cooperation, protecting commercial vessels in the Black Sea, and having Ukraine work with Turkish defense companies. Erdogan said the two discussed the stability of the shipping corridor and he reiterated Turkey’s support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence." The visit comes as Zelenskyy and other officials continue to press other nations for more munitions and weaponry to halt the advance of Russian troops trying to make deeper gains into the Ukraine-held western part of the Donetsk region and also penetrating into the Kharkiv region north of it in the third year of war.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he was attending a meeting of the foreign ministers of France, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, that "drop by drop" aid to Ukraine no longer works. “If things continue as they currently happen, it’s not going to end well for all of us," Kuleba said.
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