Turkey hopeful on Russia-Ukraine talks despite civilian massacres, says foreign minister

Delegations of Russia and Ukraine in İstanbul (Photo: AA)

Though recent "inhumane images" of apparent civilian massacres in Ukraine have affected the positive atmosphere of peace talks, hopes for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow remain alive, Turkey's foreign minister has said.

A statement by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, that they intend to continue the negotiations "increased our hopes," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told NTV in a live interview.

"For this reason, we're neither very pessimistic nor entirely optimistic. We're realistic, that is, our cautious optimism continues, but we need to keep working," he said.

Russia and Ukraine have held a series of talks in İstanbul since late March, with no results achieved yet.

Stressing the need for a cease-fire as soon as possible, Cavusoglu said a truce would become much more difficult to secure as the war draws out.

Turkey will maintain its balanced and principled foreign policy towards Russia, he added. "Everyone understands that it would be unrealistic for us to partake in these (Russia) sanctions while acting as a mediator between both parties."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine

On February 24, explosions were reported in several Ukrainian provinces, including the capital Kyiv, after Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced a 'special military operation' in the Donbas region.

Tensions had started escalating late last year when Ukraine, the US and its allies accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine. They claimed Russia was preparing to invade its western neighbor, which was consistently rejected by Moscow.

Defying threats of sanctions by the West, Moscow officially recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states in late February, followed by the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin said the operation aims to protect people "subjected to genocide" by Kyiv and to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" Ukraine, while calling on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms.

More than 3,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, according to UN estimates.

More than 4.3 million Ukrainians have fled to other countries, with millions more internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.

(VK)