Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and said Ankara was ready to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv to reach a “lasting peace” in Ukraine.
“Erdogan stated that as Turkey, we are ready to facilitate and mediate the establishment of a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine,” the Turkish president’s office said after the call.
Erdogan told Putin that any offer for peace talks should also include a “unilateral ceasefire” to facilitate negotiations. Later in the day, Putin ordered a unilateral ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas on Saturday, but it’s not clear if it will hold as it has been rejected by Kyiv.
While Erdogan is eager to mediate, chances of peace talks are slim as the warring sides have vastly different demands. According to the Kremlin, Putin said Russia is open to talks, but only if Kyiv takes into account Russia’s annexation of the territory it controls in the Donbas and the oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
“Putin reiterated that Russia is open to a serious dialogue, given authorities in Kiev meet demands that have been repeatedly put forward, with due account taken of the new territorial realities,’ the Kremlin said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Ukraine has maintained that it will only talk with Russia if Russian forces withdraw from the territory that has been captured since the invasion was launched. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said recently that peace talks could only happen after Russia faces war crimes tribunals.
While Ukraine maintains a hardline position, the US continues to escalate military aid for Kyiv. The only time peace talks appeared to have a chance was much earlier in the war, after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul last March, but the negotiations were discouraged by the West and ultimately failed.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sounds like some kind of adolescent jackass to me.
Don’t trust him Vladimir, Erdogan is playing ‘Both Ends against Middle’.
Agreed. When war breaks out they always stay on the sideline to clean up the spoils.
Erdogan appears to be bipolar. Talk about someone who carefully non-commits to anything and constantly changes his mind…
I trust him to seek Turkey’s best interests as he sees them.
That is not Ukraine’s interests, nor Russia’s, and certainly not interests of the US empire.
He is just now returning to his deal with Assad. I’ve been expecting that, as peace returns in the wake of neocon failures.
I just stopped for some camaraderie and look what I found?! Everyone is talking about Peace!!! Just like my sunflower, basking in the sunlight, absorbing those beautiful vibes. It permeates the air….Ahem……………..
Donna, when peace breaks out I’m throwing a big par-tee and I’m rounding up you, Renate, Wars, Bear, Red, and a few others here to come celebrate on the farm! We’ll have music, dancing ( I’ll teach y’all the two-step) while the ribs are on the grill. Then we can walk, ride, or target-shoot.
Yee-haw!
https://www.rt.com/russia/569292-one-step-from-nuclear-armageddon/
Nuclear Ukraine? Amid ‘concerns’ over alleged Russian threat, the world overlooks the real danger
Kiev is capable of building an atomic device, and its leaders often outline such thoughts
Minsk II describes a peace. It has only gotten worse as the US neocons provoked war, and chose war over the peace deal they’d signed.
Now Erdogan suggests that Ukraine can’t do better than Minsk II? That is long past.
They provoked and then lost a war. Now they will be forced to pay the price. It will be a much higher price than just accepting the deal they had before they chose war instead.
They want an “unearned victory” in the words of Russian representatives. They won’t get it. That is not how the world works.
According to pro-Russian sources, Erdogan was the primary driver of the attempted 36 hour cease fire. Russia accepted it, US rejected it.
It turns out that it would have been better for the US if we had accepted it. Russia has made clear gains in the Bakmut area, which is a defensive stronghold that anchors an entire line of defense. In 36 hours, we could have gotten extra military forces there. Rejecting the ceasefire seems to have turned out to be a nice Christmas gift from the US to Russia.
A unilateral ceasefire — which is what Putin declared — isn’t dependent upon anyone else’s “acceptance.”
Well he accepted his half of it. So no ceasefire happened. And apparently this benefitted Russia quite a bit.