ANKARA v KYIV (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for the “worrying” completion of the eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart in Istanbul, adding that Turkey is ready to offer any necessary support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held more than three hours of talks with Erdogan in Istanbul as part of a previously scheduled visit amid tensions between Kiev and Moscow over the Donbass conflict.
Kiev has sounded the alarm over an accumulation of Russian forces near the Ukrainian-Russian border and the escalation of violence along the line separating Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass.
Russian military movements have fueled concerns that Moscow is preparing to send forces to Ukraine. The Kremlin denies that its troops are a threat, but says they will stay as long as it sees fit.
The United States says Russia has amassed more troops on Ukraine’s eastern border than at any time since 2014, when it annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported separatists in Donbass. On Friday, Turkey said Washington would send two warships to the Black Sea next week.
Speaking at a press conference with Zelenskiy, Erdogan said he hoped the conflict would be resolved peacefully, through dialogue based on diplomatic customs, in accordance with international law and Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“We hope that the worrying escalation recently observed on the ground will end as soon as possible, that the ceasefire will continue and that the conflict will be resolved through dialogue based on the Minsk agreements,” Erdogan said. “We are ready to provide any support needed for this.”
The major fighting in Donbass ended with an armistice agreed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in 2015, whose implementation was aided by France and Germany. Sporadic fighting continues despite repeated attempts to implement a ceasefire.
Zelenskiy said the positions in Kiev and Ankara coincided with the Black Sea threats and the response to those threats, adding that he had informed Erdogan “in detail” about developments in Donbass.
“We have discussed in detail the common security and countermeasures to the challenges in the Black Sea region, and it is noteworthy that the views in Kiev and Ankara coincide both in terms of the threats themselves and how to respond to those threats.” , he said.
Turkey, a NATO member, has concluded close cooperation with Russia on the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in the areas of defense and energy. But he criticized the annexation of Crimea and supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine. It also sold drones to Kiev in 2019.
Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey and Ukraine had launched a platform with their foreign and defense ministers to discuss co-operation with the defense industry, but added that it was “in no way a move against third countries”.
Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for increasing violence in the conflict, which Kiev says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an appeal with Erdogan on Friday, accused Ukraine of “dangerous provocative actions” in Donbass. Kiev said on Saturday that Ukraine could be provoked by Russia’s worsening situation in Donbass.
Written by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Montage by Frances Kerry