Turkey Offers To Host Russia-Ukraine Talks to Release Tensions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Thursday that his offer to receive the Russia-Ukraine summit aimed to ease the current geopolitical conflict between both countries during his visit to Kiev.

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Stressing his support for Ukraine's territorial integrity, the President's remarks followed frantic diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, with French President Emmanuel Macron set to talk by telephone to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later in the day.

"I confirm my readiness to receive the leaders of Russia and Ukraine," Erdogan told reporters in Kiev, where he arrived on an official visit on Thursday.

The Turkish leader expressed his conviction that the Russian-Ukrainian crisis would be solved diplomatically following the Minsk Agreements.

"I sincerely believe that the crisis will be resolved through peaceful diplomatic means within the framework of the Minsk Agreements based on Ukraine's territorial integrity and international law," the Turkish leader stressed.

Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said earlier that the Turkish leader invited Russian and Ukrainian presidents Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky to discuss and settle the differences.

In Kiev, Erdogan met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Zelenski, who thanked him for mediating the talks with Moscow.

"I thank Mr. President (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) for his initiative to mediate between Ukraine and Russia on the way to the end of the war... It does not matter where we will put an end to the war; what matters is that everyone is ready to do it sincerely," the Ukrainian leader said.

Since April 2014, Ukraine has been conducting an operation against militias in Donbas where the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics were proclaimed, in response to the violent change of government that occurred in February of the same year in Kiev.

According to UN estimates, the hostilities have so far left some 13,000 people dead.

Despite agreements signed in September 2014 and February 2015 in Minsk for a political solution to the conflict, sporadic clashes have so far occurred.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed that Kiev does not comply with the Minsk Agreements and drags out negotiations to resolve the conflict.