Türkiye eyes sustainable peace between Russia, Ukraine

ISTANBUL

Türkiye has highlighted the importance of achieving sustainable peace between Russia and Ukraine as it hosted the second round of direct talks between the two sides, expressing its commitment to continuing negotiations at the leaders' level, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul’s historic Çırağan Palace on June 2, two weeks after the first round of talks, to discuss their positions concerning the much-anticipated ceasefire to be followed by a lasting peace agreement.

The former was represented by Vladimir Medinski, an aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the latter by Defense Minister Rustem Uremov. Fidan chaired the meeting along with National Intelligence Organization chief İbrahim Kalın and Chief of General Staff Gen. Metin Gürak.

In his opening statement, Fidan hailed the two sides’ participation and implementation of the decisions taken in the first round of talks as an effort to build trust between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia will discuss their conditions and perspectives concerning reaching a ceasefire, the minister stressed, also informing that they will discuss the preparations for a leaders’ summit.

Erdoğan has long been calling on Russian and Ukrainian leaders, Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to come to Istanbul for a summit with the likely participation of Trump.

“Our fundamental expectation is to reach a much-desired result through concrete advances followed by fruitful talks,” Fidan said, reiterating that sustainable peace between Russia and Ukraine is the ultimate goal of all these efforts.

“We find America's belief in and support for these talks to be extremely important. Trump's determination to establish peace has opened a new window of opportunity,” Fidan stated.

Resolving the matter between Russia and Ukraine will contribute to tackling a lot of global and regional problems, Fidan said. “In this process, we, as Türkiye, are ready to take any faciliatory steps. The trust we see from two regional countries that we share the same geography, history, cultural, economic is beyond any other evaluations," he stated.

“The talks you will make here will be decisive for global and regional fate. The eyes of the entire world are on you. We believe you will take decisions that will make us one step closer to peace,” the minister added.

According to a statement by Umerov after the talks, the three priorities they have highlighted were “reaching a ceasefire, humanitarian steps and summit at the leaders’ level.”

All the talks will continue in case Russia pursues to be serious, or it needs to be sanctioned, the Ukrainian minister stated.

The Russian side has submitted its list of conditions for ceasefire, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Sergiy Kyslytsya said at a press conference he held after talks were wrapped up. He denied sharing its content, stressing they will first have to analyze it.

“The Russian side has not accepted unconditional ceasefire,” he said. “For us, ceasefire is a must for diplomacy.”

He informed that the two sides have agreed for another exchange of prisoners with the motto of “all for all” and they have also given a list of the names of hundreds of abducted Ukrainian children to Russia.