The meeting between the Russian and Turkish leaders took place during the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, which was held in Astana in Kazakhstan.
Erdoğan has acted many times as mediator and facilitator of important issues, in particular the grain agreement on the export of wheat from Ukraine to prevent a world food emergency.
Erdogan was expected to offer to mediate peace talks during his meeting with Putin in Astana, the report reads.
But Peskov said it didn’t happen.
The war in Ukraine was expected to be the main topic of the bilateral meeting. A few days before the meeting the Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin claimed: “Our understanding is that Mr. Putin wants to have a new grand bargain, a new deal with the West. It’s partly about Ukraine, no doubt. But the larger issue is really a new deal between Russia and the Western world.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 4 put into effect a decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine recognizing the “impossibility of negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” and imposed additional sanctions against Russia.
This was in response to the Russian claim to have annexated the part of Ukrainian territory its military has invaded. The decree was signed on Sept. 30 – the same day as a ceremony was held in Moscow marking the sham annexation.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Turkey has tried to remain a mediator between Ukraine and Russia. While Turkey hasn’t imposed strict sanctions against Russia, still it supplies weapons to Ukraine, for example Bayraktar drones, and refuses to deliver weapons to Russia.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
