The idea that Turkey will give Ukraine S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems purchased from Russia is unrealistic, Fahrettin Altun, head of the Turkish presidential administration's public relations office, said in an article in The Wall Street Journal.
"This idea is by no means realistic," the office of president Tayyip Erdogan quoted him as saying on Thursday.
In addition, Altun said, "The West should supply Turkey with F-35 fighter jets and Patriot SAMs without preconditions."
Erdogan's administration also said that "confidence-building steps must be taken to restore relations between Turkey and the United States." "Turkey still remembers how some allies withdrew Patriot SAM batteries from the republic at a time of tension in Turkish-Russian relations," Altun added.
Earlier, the Pentagon confirmed that the US is in talks with Ankara to send Kiev S-400 SAMs in exchange for Turkey's return to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet program and the lifting of sanctions against Ankara.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Vitaly Nevar/TASS
Based on materials from TASS