Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a visit to Ukraine "
in the coming weeks
" to try to ease the growing tensions between Kyiv and Moscow, said the spokesman for the Turkish presidency.
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"
President Erdogan will travel to Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but we will remain in close contact with the Russians to avoid any military action, the consequences of which would be significant and irreversible
", declared Tuesday January 18 to the evening Ibrahim Kalin during an online roundtable. Recep Tayyip Erdogan also invited the Ukrainian and Russian presidents to Turkey "
to resolve their differences during a meeting
", added Ibrahim Kalin. “
Turkey is ready to play any role to ease tensions. We do this as a friend of both Russia and Ukraine and an ally of NATO
,” he said.
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Ankara had drawn Moscow's wrath by supplying drones to Kiev and refusing to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia has previously rejected offers of mediation from Turkey over tensions over sales of Turkish drones to Ukraine.
