Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have agreed that the Russian leader will visit Türkiye "soon", Interfax cited a Kremlin aide as saying on Friday.
The visit would be Putin's first to a NATO country since he ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Putin has only rarely travelled outside Russia since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
"There is an invitation from the President of Turkey. Putin and Erdoğan agreed that the visit will be in the near future, but we have not yet talked about a specific day, specific dates," Interfax cited Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov as saying.
President Erdoğan, re-elected last month for another five-year term, has sought to maintain strong ties with both Moscow and Kyiv since the start of the Ukrainian conflict.
Ankara has also helped to broker prisoner exchanges and, along with the United Nations, negotiated a deal in July 2022 to allow for the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports via the Black Sea.
