Turkey says Putin is no longer going to talk to Zelenskyy

Denys Karlovskyi — Saturday, 19 March 2022, 21:14

Turkish authorities say that they are working hard to organise a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Russia is not yet willing to meet.

Source: spokesman for the President of Turkey Ibrahim Kalin for the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, Turkish state news agency Anadolu

Quote from Kalin: "In talks with Zeslenskyy and Putin, our president proposed ending the war and holding a meeting between the two leaders in Turkey.

Mr. Zelensky is ready to do this. Mr. Putin, by contrast, believes that the parties have not yet reached a common vision sufficient to conduct negotiations at the head-of-state level."

Details: According to Kalin, Erdogan proposes to fix in the negotiations between Zelensky and Putin the main points on which a compromise is possible, and then more detailed negotiations on the agreement will continue between the delegations.

The Turkish president is prepared to be a mediator in these negotiations and to offer a platform for negotiations in Turkey.

According to him, in a conversation with Erdogan, Putin voiced six demands on Ukraine:

• Ukraine's neutrality and refusal to join NATO in future;
• "demilitarisation" and mutual provision of security guarantees according to the Austrian security model;
• "denazification";
• removal of "obstacles" to the widespread use of the Russian language;
• status recognition of the "Donetsk People’s Republic" and the "Luhansk People’s Republic";
• recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea.

According to Kalin, the Ukrainian delegation apparently discussed the first four points with the Russians, but is not prepared even to discuss the fifth and sixth. Therefore, it seems that Turkey hopes for progress if it manages to organise a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin.

Kalin says that neither Ukraine nor the world community is likely to easily agree to the recognition of Russia's occupation of Crimea and Donbas, as this is a flagrant violation of international law.

He added that Russia was trying to negotiate from a position of strength, but "it should not be forgotten that the continuation of the war will primarily hit the Russian army and economy."

Previously: 

• A week ago, after Putin's telephone conversation with Erdogan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave assurances that Russia was not against personal talks between Zelenskyy and Putin.
• On 17 March, Erdogan had another telephone conversation with Putin asking him to help achieve a ceasefire.
• On 10 March, on the initiative of Turkey, a tripartite meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey took place in Antalya. However, no progress was made on a truce as a result of the negotiations.
• On 16 March, the Russian authorities announced their readiness to continue negotiations with Ukraine in the tripartite format of foreign ministers.
• On 11 March, Erdogan said that the current Russian-Ukrainian war would not have taken place if the world had responded properly to Russia's occupation of Crimea and invasion of Donbas in 2014.