Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in the southern Turkish province of Antalya late Wednesday ahead of a face-to-face meeting set with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, the first high-level contact between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia invaded its neighbor two weeks ago.
Kuleba arrived in Turkey early Thursday, reports said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has pushed for Turkey to play a mediation role, has expressed hope the talks can avert tragedy and even help arrange a cease-fire.
Analysts, however, doubt that a breakthrough will be made at the meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba.
Senior Ukrainian officials, including the defense minister, have held a sequence of meetings with a Russian delegation in Belarus largely devoted to humanitarian issues, but Moscow has not sent any ministers to the talks.
Lavrov and Kuleba will be joined at the meeting Thursday morning by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu, with NATO member Turkey keen to maintain strong relations with both sides despite the conflict.
Kuleba confirmed in a video on Facebook he was preparing to meet Lavrov on Thursday, warning that his expectations were “limited.”
He said the success of the talks would depend on “what instructions and directives Lavrov is under” from the Kremlin at the discussions.
“I am not pinning any great hopes on them but we will try and get the most out of” the talks with effective preparation, he said.
‘Active neutrality’
The visit to Antalya is the first trip abroad for Lavrov since Russia was isolated by the Western world with biting sanctions that have also targeted President Vladimir Putin’s long-serving top diplomat.
Lavrov flew into Antalya late on Wednesday ahead of the talks, which are being held on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum organized by Çavuşoğlu in Antalya, a Turkish official said.
The meeting is likely to be tense after Kuleba in an interview last week with CNN described Lavrov as the “Ribbentrop of his time” in reference to the foreign minister of Nazi Germany in World War II.
“We are working to stop this crisis transforming into a tragedy,” Erdoğan said on Wednesday.
“I hope the meeting between the ministers will open the way to a permanent cease-fire.”
Turkey is a traditional ally of Ukraine and has supplied the country with Bayraktar TB2 combat drones which were purchased from Baykar and Kyiv has deployed in the conflict.
But Anara is seeking to maintain neutrality and keep good relations with Russia as well, with whom Turkey has trade relations in many aspects from energy to tourism.
“The active neutrality succeeded in bringing Turkey to the center of the diplomatic game,” said Berk Esen of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Low ‘breakthrough’ chance
The war has sparked Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 2 million people crossing Ukraine’s borders, according to the United Nations.
The West’s sanctions on Russia have failed to dissuade Putin from pushing on with his assault.
“I think every effort helps, but I don’t think there is much hope for a breakthrough just yet,” the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Middle East Program director Aaron Stein told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Erdoğan is also scheduled to talk on the phone with U.S. President Joe Biden Thursday at 3:30 p.m. GMT, according to the Turkish Presidency.
Washington Institute fellow Soner Çağaptay said he would “be highly surprised” if the Antalya talks led to a major breakthrough, with other leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also seeking to mediate.
But he praised as a “huge success for Turkish diplomacy” the fact that the two foreign ministers “are agreeing to meet in person in a neutral territory.”
“That’s quite significant even if there’s no breakthrough,” he told AFP. -Agencies
