Turkey ready to support to resolve Ukraine-Russia crisis

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after meeting his counterpart in Kyiv, repeated on Thursday that Turkey was ready to do what it can to resolve the Ukraine-Russia crisis and offered to host a meeting of the country's two leaders.

Speaking after more than four hours of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, Erdoğan also reiterated Turkey's determination to support Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the offer from the visit to mediate in Kyiv's stand-off with Moscow and to host peace talks.

Zelenskiy was speaking alongside Erdoğan in Kyiv after the two countries signed a free trade deal and other agreements. Russia has massed troops near Ukraine's borders in recent weeks but denies planning to attack its neighbor.

"I would like to thank President Erdoğan for his initiative to become a mediator between Ukraine and Russia on the way to ending the war," he said. "In Ukraine, we are ready to do our best on all platforms and in all formats."

AGREEMENTS

Before the joint news conference, the top authorities from Turkish and Ukrainian sides signed a total of eight cooperation agreements, including a free trade agreement, and memoranda of understanding.

Zelenskiy commented on the free agreement signed between two countries, saying that it is an "historic event". He also underlined that Kyiv will expand production of Baykar UAV vehicles in Ukraine.

"We managed to increase bilateral trade volume to $7b, which indicates that our $10b target is very possible," he said.

Erdoğan also commented on the subject, saying that there can be "steps that can be taken between Turkey and Ukraine to increase the trade volume to $10b."