Ibrahim Kalin, chief adviser and spokesman to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: “Zelensky is ready to meet, but Putin feels that the status of this meeting at the level of leaders is not close enough yet.”
Turkey and Erdogan are playing an important mediation role between Russia and Ukraine, trying to find a way toward a long-term ceasefire and serious talks on a peaceful solution to a brutal war that has lasted more than three weeks. are doing. While Turkey is a member of NATO, Erdogan has good relations with Putin, despite the Russian leader’s opposition to the 30-nation Western military alliance.
Erdogan spoke to Zelensky and Putin on Thursday to find out their position, and Kalin was on the call.
The Turkish official said Putin no longer advocates for Zelensky to be replaced, but “now accepts Zelensky’s reality as the leader of the Ukrainian people, whether he likes it or not.”
“I believe the meeting will happen at some point,” Kalin said. “At some point there will be a peace settlement. Of course, we all want this to happen sooner than later, but perhaps Putin thinks that when he does he wants to be in a position of strength, and not look vulnerable, either weakened by military losses or economic sanctions. There are. ,
That time is not now and may not be soon, Kalin said. But economic sanctions are probably having the biggest impact on Putin’s thinking.
Ukrainians “want a peace settlement sooner rather than later, regardless of other’s opinion,” he said, even though some NATO countries are concerned about Russia being rewarded for a war of aggression, while At the same time not ready to fight with the Russians. Self.
But the main difficulty will be how to maintain Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, which Ukraine and its allies will not sacrifice. It also includes the Crimean peninsula, which Russia occupied eight years ago. Even though Crimea is “genuine Russian,” he said, no one would “legally” accept annexation.
Ideally, Kalin said, the solution would be found in some new version of the Minsk Agreement, which were meant to grant significant autonomy within Ukraine to the Russian-backed separatist enclaves of Donetsk and Luhansk.
It is now more complicated because Putin and the Russian Duma, or parliament, have recognized separatist enclaves as “independent” states no longer under their control, as Russia did in 2008 after a similar war in Georgia. with South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are negotiating further video calls in Belarus. But the Russian delegation is relatively low-level, and so far the most difficult problems separating the two sides have not been negotiated, leading Ukrainian officials to believe Russia is delaying while its military offensive continues.
The toughest issues, such as territorial control and sovereignty, would be left to the two presidents, Kalin suggested, once fewer issues were resolved. These include Ukraine agreeing to a form of neutrality excluding NATO membership, which Zelensky has already accepted. “The Russians are ready to move to another level of negotiations,” Kalin said.
But it will also be important for Turkey and its fellow NATO members to start thinking seriously about how to manage relations with Russia after the war ends, Kalin said. “While we absolutely reject the Russian war on Ukraine, the Russian case must be heard, because after this war, a new security framework will have to be established between Russia and the Western Bloc,” he said.
“We cannot afford another Cold War; This would be bad for all and costly for the entire international political and financial system. “Whatever decision we take, any action we take now with respect to Russia, military, political, economic and otherwise, will have an impact on that new security framework.”
The topic will be part of an extraordinary summit of NATO countries on Thursday that President Joe Biden plans to attend. While mostly intended as a show of unity in the face of Russian aggression, to emphasize the Coalition’s commitment to resistance and collective defence, Kalin said, “At the end of the day, the goal is to establish peace and security for all.”
This is why Turkey is working so hard to “keep our lines of communication open with Russia”, he said. “Of course, Russia bears more responsibility here,” he said, “but at the end of the day, it’s President Putin who will call off this war. When does he feel like doing it, when does he think he should be in this war.” Has got what he wanted – compromise, concession, deal – I don’t know. But I think we are moving in that direction.”
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