Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that he plans to discuss with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday the prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
"I expect to discuss with the distinguished Mr. Putin on Thursday, if possible, the problem of resolving the Ukrainian crisis. I am not pessimistic. At the same time, it would be naive to get a positive outcome right away. The referendums held in four Ukrainian cities create problems [in resolving the crisis], and everything could have been resolved diplomatically. A similar situation arose in 2014 with the example of Crimea, then we did not succeed," the Turkish leader said on CNN Türk.
The Turkish leader called the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine a "catastrophe". "The price of using nuclear weapons in a conflict will be equal to a catastrophe. We should not only talk about this, but also think about it. It is necessary to use diplomatic means as much as possible in order not to bring the conflict to such a development," the Turkish president stressed.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS