(Istanbul) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday called on Turkey to be “one of the guarantors” of a possible agreement with Russia, announced his counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is visiting Lviv in western Ukraine.
Updated yesterday at 12:17 PM.
“Ukraine made a presentation on the Collective Security Agreement: the five permanent members of the Security Council, editor’s note), as well as Turkey and Germany,” Mr. Cavusoglu said during a joint press conference with the Ukrainian minister.
“Turkey is one of the countries that we want to be a guarantor of,” the official Anadolu Agency quoted Keliba as saying.
The five permanent members are: the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France.
“During my contacts in Moscow yesterday, I saw that the Russian Federation does not see any objection to this and can accept such an offer,” said the Turkish minister, who met Wednesday in Moscow with the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov.
Speaking to the press after these two diplomatic meetings, Mr. Cavusoglu considered that “hopes for a ceasefire have increased.”
In addition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom he repeated his offer to host a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “in Ankara or Istanbul.”
But for Mr Cavusoglu, it is “hard to predict when” this meeting will take place.
Both leaders must be prepared for this. You have to prepare the land. “The date will be determined by them,” he added.
The Turkish presidency said in a press release that Mr. Erdogan insisted on “the necessity of opening humanitarian corridors” to allow civilians to leave the combat zones.
The Turkish president suggested that Turkey send ceasefire monitors in Mariupol, a city besieged by Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.
Mr. Cavusoglu said Thursday that “more than a hundred Turks” are still in this city.
“Clashes are continuing and thousands of civilians have not been able to leave the city,” the minister added.
“We have suggested that international monitors, such as the Red Cross and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and the Turkish Red Crescent, monitor adherence to the 24-hour ceasefire and humanitarian corridors,” he explained.
