Turkey’s foreign minister claims that Russia and Ukraine are nearing an agreement on “critical issues.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has played a notable role in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia amid the war, including meetings with Russia‘s and Ukraine’s foreign ministers in the last week. Now, he’s claiming that negotiations may improve soon.
Cavusoglu alleges that there had been “rapprochement in the positions of both sides on important subjects, critical subjects,” according to an interview published on Sunday in the Turkish daily Hurriyet.
“We can say we are hopeful for a ceasefire if the sides do not take a step back from the current positions,” the minister added, although he did not elaborate further on those positions.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin claimed during a Saturday interview on Al Jazeera television that the two sides were approaching compromises on four particular issues. These include Russia’s demand that Ukraine legally ratify its constitution to include the decision not to join NATO, that Ukraine demilitarize, that Ukraine seek “de-Nazification,” and that Ukraine maintain the protection of the Russian language in Ukraine.
The demands mentioned by Kalin resemble the list of demands that the Kremlin released on March 7 to end the war. The mention of “de-Nazification” also references the presence in Ukraine of neo-Nazi organizations like the Azov Regiment. However, Russia has spread misinformation about the regiment, alleging some civilian sites that Russia bombed were actually Azov bases.
Kalin also stated that a permanent ceasefire would only occur after an in-person meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, Kalin believed that Putin’s positions on Crimea and Donbas were not close enough to a resolution to justify a meeting.
Turkey hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for a meeting on March 10. While the two attempted to engage in negotiations, no significant change occurred in the two countries’ engagement regarding the war. “We also talked on the ceasefire, but no progress was accomplished on that,” Kuleba told reporters.
Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine have met for four rounds of discussions since the beginning of the war. While the negotiators hinted at progress after the fourth round of conversations, this does not appear to have affected Russia’s military actions, including several strikes against civilian shelters.
Reporting from The Washington Examiner.
