By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL- The leaders of Russia and Ukraine were invited to Turkey by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in an effort to reduce tensions between the two nations. On Wednesday, Erdogan’s spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said: “Turkey is ready to act in any role to reduce the tension between Russia and Ukraine. President Erdogan is holding negotiations both with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.” According to Daily Sabah newspaper Kalin added: “In actual fact, he has even invited them both to come to Turkey, if they want to meet and sort out their problems and disagreements.” Kalin verified that the Turkish leader is planning to visit Ukraine soon for negotiations with Zelensky.
The Turkish president previously, repeatedly said he is willing to mediate the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, Kalin said. During telephone conversations in December 2021, Putin highlighted to Erdogan what he said is Ukraine’s continuing to follow a policy that disrupts the Minsk Accords to settle the dispute of southeastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, the U.S. Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland said that Washington has at least 18 scenarios ready to respond to Moscow’s amassed troops on Ukraine’s border. Nuland added that U.S. conversations with allies have included discussions about “inflicting very sharp pain very fast if Russia makes this move in any form.” The Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a press briefing on Monday that “Russia is thinking about its own security. We know that Mrs. Nuland has 18 scenarios. We are considering different scenarios, we believe that there should be far fewer of them because the formulation of the question is extremely correct for us – there is no need to make it complicated because it is not so complicated. The question is extremely direct and extremely specific.”
It remains to be seen whether Erdogan’s offer of resolving the crisis will actually produce results. The Turkish leader seems to think it’s worth taking the opportunity to at least try. The fact that Putin and Zelensky would be open to such a discussion speaks volumes about Erdogan’s continuing efforts to conduct his brand of Turkish diplomacy around the world. So far, Russia has hinted at a possible diplomatic opening through Putin’s talks with French President Macron earlier on Friday. On a more hopeful note, Russia’s foreign minister Lavrov did indicate that Russia might be able to negotiate with the U.S. on some issues.
The larger picture is that Russia in the last 24 hours has continued its buildup of troops on the border of Ukraine while the U.S. and its European allies continue to send weapons to Ukraine as NATO increases its defensive positions in Eastern Europe. France has insisted on the need to “de-escalate” the crisis to avoid any unintended provocations but has offered military assistance to Romania. Press reports indicate Russia was not pleased with the Macron phone call and the Kremlin said that Putin is still studying the U.S. and NATO written responses and that “after that will decide on its further actions.”
