For the first time since the outbreak of war two weeks ago, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba have met in Turkey.
The two politicians sat opposite each other in a hall in Antalya on Thursday morning in the presence of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoglu, according to a photo released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The talks in Turkey should serve to end Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said in Kyiv. According to information from Kyiv, the talks will explore ways of ending the war in Ukraine.
Turkey had offered to mediate. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order for the invasion of Ukraine – partly on the grounds that he wanted to demilitarize the country and protect the Russian-speaking population in the east of the country.
As a condition for a cessation of fighting, Russia is demanding that Ukraine declare itself neutral in its constitution. In addition, Kyiv must recognize the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea as Russian and the separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states.
So far, Ukraine has largely rejected this. However, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shown himself willing to talk and recently indicated a certain willingness to compromise. “I’ll tell you quite frankly that I have low expectations of the negotiations,” Kuleba said on Wednesday. “But we will undoubtedly exert maximum pressure.”