EUROPEAN PRAVDA – MONDAY, 8 AUGUST 2022, 10:58
Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar has said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin to encourage him to implement “certain agreements”.
He said this in an interview with the publication RBC-Ukraine, European Pravda reports.
“We can say that Erdogan influences Putin in a certain way and has levers of influence in order not to force, but to encourage him to implement certain agreements,” the diplomat said.
He stressed that “none of the European leaders has achieved what Erdogan has achieved,” referring to progress on the ‘grain agreement’.
“Therefore, those mediation or facilitation efforts and negotiations in specific areas, and grain, and perhaps some other attempts to find common ground – this is also thanks to active Turkish diplomacy,” Bodnar said.
At the same time, he stressed that Turkey, first and foremost, is defending its interests and “implementing them in the way that it can”.
The ambassador acknowledged that Turkey, from the very beginning of the war, is probably one of the few that is making every effort to help Ukraine and in some way push Russia to conclude peace.
“But in their understanding, the end of the war is the end of hostilities. We are telling the Turkish side that we need the withdrawal of Russian troops, and this is the main prerequisite for later political discussions or negotiations with the aggressor country,” Vasyl Bodnar said.
According to Bloomberg sources, Moscow is considering the Turkish President as a potential mediator in peace negotiations with Ukraine.
As reported, Ankara hopes that the agreement on lifting the blockades on the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea will bring closer agreements on ending the war in Ukraine.
See also: Istanbul as “Minsk”: what Russia will get from the West in the “grain agreement” and beyond.
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