Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked on Thursday March 17 that Turkey be “one of the guarantors” of a possible agreement with Russia, said his colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu, who visited Lviv in the country’s west.
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“Ukraine has made a proposal on a collective security treaty: the Five (five permanent members of the Security Council – editor’s note), plus Turkey and Germany,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said. “During my yesterday’s contacts in Moscow, I saw that the Russian Federation sees no objection to this and that it can accept such a proposal,” said the minister, who met in Moscow on Wednesday with the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.
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Mevlut Cavusoglu, who spoke to the press after the two diplomatic meetings, said “hopes for a ceasefire have risen.” In addition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom he repeated his offer to meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky “in Ankara or Istanbul.” Recep Tayyip Erdogan also insisted on “the need to open humanitarian corridors” to allow civilians to leave war zones, according to a press release from the Turkish presidency.
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