President Erdogan Ready To Facilitate President Putin's Meeting With President Zelenzksy, Kremlin: We Welcome

JAKARTA - Russia would welcome the efforts of one of their international partners, Turkey, to encourage Ukraine to implement the Minsk Protocol, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

Commenting on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's proposal to arrange a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, Peskov said Russia welcomes any country's efforts aimed at resolving the situation in Ukraine.

"We welcome the efforts of any country that can help resolve the situation in Ukraine. The main disagreement between Russia and Ukraine relates to the delay in Kyiv's implementation of the Minsk agreement," Peskov quoted Daily Sabah as saying on January 19.

"If our Turkish partners can influence Ukraine and encourage them to fulfill their previous agreements and commitments, this would be welcome," he continued at the daily briefing.

Peskov further said the places where contacts between Russia and Ukraine were established were 'secondary', the main one being to 'influence Ukraine'. Peskov called the situation in Ukraine "very tense," claiming the escalation was due to Western military support for Ukraine.

"Regarding the tense situation in Ukraine, it's really very, very tense. We saw arms deliveries there, we saw various maneuvers, we saw military aviation flights of NATO and Western European countries. This all leads to an escalation around Ukraine," he said.

A day earlier, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said President Erdogan invited Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Turkey to "resolve differences" between the two countries. "Turkey is ready to play any role in reducing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. President Erdogan is holding negotiations with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky," Kalin said, quoted by TASS.

"In fact, He (President Erdogan) has invited both of them to come to Turkey, if they want to meet and resolve their problems and differences of opinion," he continued.

To note, President Erdogan repeatedly stated last year that he wanted to mediate in resolving the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. In a telephone conversation held in December 2021, President Putin pointed out to President Erdogan that Kiev continues to pursue destructive policies aimed at disrupting the Minsk Accords to resolve the situation in southeastern Ukraine.

"We are doing this as Turkey, as a country friendly to Russia and Ukraine, but also as a NATO ally," Kalin said.