Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to end the war in Ukraine. He added that a significant step will be taken to further the same.
This month, Ukrainian forces have recaptured swathes of territory. “In Uzbekistan, I got together with (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin, and we had very extensive discussions with him,” Erdogan told PBS. According to Erdogan, the Russian leader told him “that he’s willing to end this as soon as possible.”
Putin also indicated to Erdogan that 200 ‘hostages’ would be swapped between the two sides, but, gave no indication as to who will be included in the prisoner swap. “The way things are going right now are quite problematic,” Erdogan said.
Since the war commenced, Turkey has been engaged in activities trying to normalise things between Ukraine and Russia. Turkey, in July, initiated the Black Sea Grain Initiative to enable the resumption of the export of grain from Ukraine via a maritime humanitarian corridor, with the help of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United Nations.
Erdogan in March had revealed that Putin’s demand was to establish a peace deal with Ukraine.
