SAMARKAND: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told a regional summit attended by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that he wanted the war in Ukraine to end “as soon as possible”.
Erdogan has been trying to use his good working relations with Moscow to try and persuade Putin to hold direct ceasefire talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey.
He told a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan that Turkey was making diplomatic efforts to end the war. “We are making efforts to finalise the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan also echoed Putin’s concern that grain shipped out of Ukraine under a UN and Turkish-brokered agreement was not reaching enough developing countries.
“We are making sincere efforts to deliver the grain to those who need it most, especially our brothers and sisters in Africa,” Erdogan said.
Later, Putin has praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, but said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not prepared to hold peace talks.
Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Uzbekistan, Putin said Erdogan was always proposing meetings with Zelenskyy – although he had not done so at their meeting this time in Samarkand – and that the Turkish leader had made a “significant contribution” to attempts to end the conflict.
Putin has said there were no plans to adjust Russia’s military operations in Ukraine despite a counteroffensive, saying Moscow was in no rush to finish the campaign.
“The plan is not subject to adjustment,” Putin told reporters during a regional summit in Uzbekistan. –Agencies
