Erdogan: Putin-Zelensky Talks Not on Horizon 

By Staff, Agencies

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky have yet to agree to a summit.

Speaking to reporters on his way back from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] summit in China on Monday, Erdogan said that he had discussed the Ukraine conflict with his Russian counterpart in Tianjin. 

According to the Turkish president, his country advocates “peace-focused dialogue,” and maintains contact with both belligerents.

Turkey has already helped achieve “concrete outcomes like the grain corridor and prisoner exchanges” during previous rounds of Istanbul talks, he noted.

“We aim to elevate these negotiations progressively, ideally at the leadership level,” Erdogan stated. However, he judged by his recent phone and in-person conversations with Zelensky and Putin that the two, while being positively inclined, “are not yet ready” to meet.

During his bilateral with Erdogan on Monday, Putin said that Ankara’s role as mediator “will remain in demand in the future.”

In May, Kiev resumed talks with Moscow after US pressure, leading to prisoner swaps and return of fallen soldiers’ remains.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Tianjin summit, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov stated that Putin and Trump had indeed discussed raising the level of the negotiating teams, but no decision had been finalized, contrary to media reports.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that while the Russian president “does not rule out the possibility of holding such a meeting [with Zelensky],” it “should be well prepared… at an expert level.”

Trump told Daily Caller a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky “will happen,” but a Russia-Ukraine summit remains uncertain.

Trump has actively called for direct talks between the two since his summit with the Russian president in Alaska in mid-August.