Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın expressed the opinion on Friday that a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian heads of state Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky could take place in the near future.
"Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that President Putin would not hesitate to meet with Zelensky," Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, quoted by Cumhuriyet newspaper, said. - "I think this is a good sign. There is reason to believe that the meeting will take place, perhaps at some point in the near future".
He also reiterated that Turkey does not intend to join sanctions against Russia at this stage.
A day earlier, Lavrov said following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba that Putin "never refuses contacts." However, as the Russian minister noted, the Russian authorities want "these contacts to be organized not for their own sake, [but] to fix some specific agreements".
On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. After that, the United States, EU countries, the United Kingdom, and a number of other states announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities. However, Turkey has repeatedly stated that it does not intend to join sanctions against Russia in order not to damage its own economy and to leave a channel for dialogue with Russia.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS