Shawdesh desk:

Turkey is ready to host a peace summit between Russia and Ukraine, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul.

NATO member Turkey has been positioning itself as a potential mediator between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia launched its invasion more than two years ago.

Erdogan’s proposal comes as Ukraine faces mounting pressure on the front line, where it has lost ground to Moscow in recent months amid hold-ups to aid from its Western allies.

‘We are ready to host a peace summit where Russia is also present,’ Erdogan told a press conference alongside the Ukrainian leader.

‘While we continue our solidarity with Ukraine, we will continue our work to end the war with a just peace on the basis of negotiations,’ Erdogan said.

Zelensky dismissed the idea of negotiating directly with Russia, arguing that Ukraine and Western leaders must set out peace on their own terms.

He noted there would be an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland, where Kyiv would promote its own ‘peace formula’, but ruled out Russia’s participation.

‘We don’t see how we can invite people who block, destroy and kill everything. We want to get results,’ Zelensky said.

He called the talks with Erdogan ‘productive’ and thanked Turkey for its mediation efforts on Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports and prisoner exchanges.

Ankara has sought to maintain good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, helping the two sign a now shuttered agreement to ensure the safe passage of grain via the Black Sea in July 2022.

Erdogan said he and Zelensky had discussed issues of port security, navigation safety in the Black Sea, prisoner exchanges and food security, and that they shared the same opinions.

‘We are not hopeless,’ he said.

‘We believe that there are some opportunities that Turkey can provide with its stance.’

Turkey hosted failed ceasefire talks between Kyiv and Moscow in the first weeks of the war and wants to revive them.

Its strategic location on the Black Sea and its control of the Bosphorus Strait gives it a unique military, political and economic role in the conflict.

In July 2022, Ankara with the United Nations brokered the Black Sea grain deal, the most significant diplomatic agreement so far reached between Kyiv and Moscow.

Moscow ditched the initiative — which allowed the safe passage of Ukrainian agricultural exports across the mine-laden Black Sea — a year later, complaining that the terms were unfair.

Since the collapse of the deal, Kyiv has used an alternative shipping route hugging the coastline to avoid contested international waters.

Turkey has been lobbying hard for an agreement to ensure cargo can once again navigate those waters in safety.

Turkey’s Western allies have expressed concern over its relations with Moscow. Ankara is reliant on Russian energy and has faced scrutiny as Russia seeks to avoid Western trading restrictions.

The United States has sanctioned several Turkish companies for helping Russia purchase goods that could be used by its armed forces.

The Erdogan-Zelensky meeting comes a week after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan at a diplomatic forum in Antalya.

President Vladimir Putin was to visit Turkey last month, but postponed the trip, according to Turkish and Russian media citing diplomatic sources.

The Kremlin has said it is rescheduling the visit, but has given no date.

Russia and Ukraine both accused each other of killing civilians in drone strikes deep behind enemy lines on Friday.

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border region of Belgorod killed two people, the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, a Russian drone attack on the town of Vovchansk killed a man and a woman in a car, regional head Oleg Sinegubov said.