No agreement was reached on ceasefire during meeting
Groundbreaking trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine were held in Turkey on Thursday, to find a solution to the ongoing war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met in the presence of the Turkish foreign minister, since both leaders had requested his presence.
Russia Ukraine made no progress on ceasefire
During the trilateral meet, the Ukrainian foreign minister proposed a 24-hour ceasefire, but the two sides could not reach an agreement on that.
“It seems there are other decision-makers for this matter in Russia,” Kuleba told reporters at a news conference following the bilateral meeting.
A ceasefire was necessary to “resolve the most pressing humanitarian issues” in Ukraine, he added.
This was the first time that high-level Russian and Ukrainian officials held face-to-face talks since the war started on Feb. 24.
Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held bilateral talks with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts
Turkey’s mediating efforts
NATO ally Turkey borders Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea and has good ties with both countries. Since the beginning of the conflict in last week on February, Turkey has been participating in active diplomatic efforts to bring the two sides together, Çavuşoğlu told the media. Maintaining its neutral and balanced stance, Ankara offered to host peace talks between the two sides to help de-escalate the conflict. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made 19 phone calls to his counterparts since the beginning of the conflict, the Turkish FM revealed.
Ukraine lauds Turkey’s mediating efforts
Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, lauded Turkey’s mediating efforts, hoping that the ongoing negotiations will be fruitful.
“We are pleased that we have international partners who have been trying to undertake the role of a mediator and Turkey plays an active role with the joint efforts of the international community,” Podolyak said.
The three-day Antalya Diplomacy Forum in the Turkish resort city of Antalya is set to start tomorrow, March 11.