ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged parties to take advantage of recent contacts to strike a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, after speaking with the country’s leader.
“I would like to reiterate that we are ready to contribute to these meetings and we will be happy to host them,” Erdogan said, referring to direct Ukraine-Russia talks expected to take place in Istanbul later this week.
“A new window of opportunity has opened with the recent contacts. We hope that this opportunity will not be wasted,” Erdogan said after talking with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky said he wanted US President Donald Trump to attend the direct peace talks with Russia, after the US leader said he was “thinking” of going.
Trump said he is “thinking” of flying to Turkey on Thursday for possible talks between Ukraine and Russia.
“I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen,” Trump told journalists at the White House prior to departing for a trip to the Middle East.
“I think you may have a good result out of the Thursday meeting in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine, and I believe the two leaders were going to be there,” he said.
Asked if he would sanction Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a 30-day ceasefire, Trump said: “I have a feeling they’re going to agree. I do. I have a feeling.”
The prospect of direct Russia-Ukraine talks on ending the war has been welcomed by Washington and across Europe.
Zelensky said he wanted Trump to join peace talks with Russia in Turkey.
The negotiations, planned to take place in Istanbul on Thursday, would be the first direct meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials since the war started in 2022.
Putin proposed the talks as a counteroffer to a 30-day ceasefire put forward by Kyiv and its allies, but while Zelensky said he would attend “personally”, the Kremlin declined to say whom Russia would send.
Kyiv’s allies had proposed a 30-day ceasefire starting from Monday, insisting that it be in place for talks to happen.
Raising the stakes after a weekend of intense diplomacy, Zelensky said he would be willing to meet Putin in Turkey “personally”.
“I have openly expressed my readiness to meet,” the Ukrainian leader said on Monday.
“I hope that the Russians will not evade the meeting.”
When asked whom Russia would send to Istanbul, the Kremlin declined to comment.
“We are focused on a serious search for ways to achieve a long-term peaceful settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, without elaborating.
Peskov had earlier criticised European countries for pressuring Russia to accept a 30-day ceasefire ahead of the proposed talks.
“The language of ultimatums is unacceptable to Russia. It is not appropriate. You cannot talk to Russia in such a language,” Peskov told journalists.
Putin has said any direct talks with Ukraine should focus on the “root causes” of the conflict, and did not “exclude” a possible ceasefire coming out of any talks in Istanbul.
Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks in Istanbul in March 2022 aimed at halting the conflict but did not strike a deal.
Contact between the warring sides has been extremely limited since, mainly dedicated to humanitarian issues like prisoner-of-war exchanges and the return of killed soldiers’ bodies.
EU leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, have welcomed the prospect of direct talks. – Agencies
