TIANJIN: Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Turkiye’s mediation attempts around the Ukraine war at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in China on Monday.
“I’m confident that Turkiye’s special role in these matters will continue to be in demand,” the Russian president said during talks with Erdogan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
Putin added that the three rounds of direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul have made some progress on the humanitarian track.
The talks have failed to yield a breakthrough over Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion and resulted only in exchanges of prisoners and soldiers’ bodies.
The warring sides have radically different positions and Ukraine has accused Russia of sending low-level officials with no real decision-making power to the Istanbul talks.
