A double slap by Türkiye to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “Ukraine deserves to join NATO. “Russia and Ukraine should return to peace talks,” Turkish President Recep Tayyp Erdogan said after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is on a foreign mission in preparation for the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 . Last night, the White House ruled out that Ukraine’s NATO membership was imminent.
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But besides pushing for Kiev to join the Atlantic Alliance, there is another reason for tensions between Ankara and Moscow. “The return of former Azov battalion prisoners of war from Turkey to Ukraine is a violation of the terms of the current agreements of both Kiev and Ankara,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lamented after iZelensky announced his return to Kiev for the mission to Istanbul with five commanders of the Azov, which Russia handed over to Turkey in September on condition that they not leave the country. “Russia was not informed about the transfer of Azov commanders from Turkey” Peskov’s anger at Erdogan’s move.
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