Russian President, Vladimir Putin, hailed Turkey’s continued mediation efforts in the Ukraine conflict during talks with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Beijing on Monday.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, where they discussed regional security and Ankara’s role in past negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
“I’m confident that Turkey’s special role in these matters will continue to be in demand,” Putin said, pointing to Ankara’s previous attempts to bring the warring parties closer together.
Turkey hosted three rounds of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, which led to modest progress on humanitarian issues such as prisoner swaps and the return of soldiers’ bodies.
However, these meetings failed to produce a wider peace settlement, with both sides holding firm to irreconcilable positions.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sending negotiators without genuine decision-making powers, while Russia has demanded Ukraine cede four regions it claims to have annexed, an offer that Ukrainian leaders have branded unacceptable.
Meanwhile, United States President, Donald Trump, has called for a direct meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but Moscow has dismissed the idea as premature until “fundamental issues” are resolved.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the war has devastated much of eastern and southern Ukraine, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead and millions displaced.
