Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday, April 28, that he was ready to “take the initiative” to end the war in Ukraine the day after a prisoner swap between Washington and Moscow on Turkish soil to end.
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In a telephone interview, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “ready to take the initiative to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and act as a mediator on the road to peace,” the Turkish Presidency said in a statement. Recep Tayyip Erdogan “expressed his desire to establish lasting peace in the region as soon as possible, building on the momentum gained during the talks in Istanbul,” according to the presidency.
exchange of prisoners
The Turkish presidency added that Vladimir Putin “thanked” Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Washington-Moscow prisoner swap announced on Wednesday, which took place “in Turkey under the coordination and supervision” of the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT). Former US Marine Trevor Reed, who had been sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia for violence, had been swapped for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who had been imprisoned in the US since 2010.
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As a member of NATO and an ally of Ukraine, Turkey has been trying to facilitate mediation between Moscow and Kyiv since the start of the war in Ukraine and has so far refused to join Western sanctions against Russia in order to maintain an open line with Turkey true Kremlin. Turkey has therefore twice hosted direct negotiations between the two parties, on March 10 at ministerial level in Antalya (South) and on March 29 in Istanbul. Since then, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly stated that he wants to host a meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Istanbul.
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