2023-07-07 19:08:42
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Turkey for talks on Russia’s war of aggression and the grain deal. He also wants to coordinate with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the NATO summit next week and talk regarding the reconstruction of Ukraine and defense agreements, he wrote on Twitter on Friday. Selenskyj had previously held talks in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The grain agreement, which was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in summer 2022, is scheduled to expire on July 17. The agreement ended a months-long Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports. As a result, Ukraine, as one of the most important grain exporters worldwide, can once more export grain – albeit to a limited extent.
The UN urged all parties in a written statement on Friday to extend the agreement to ensure global food security.
The agreement had been extended several times, most recently by two months in mid-May. However, Russia complains that promises to ease Russian agricultural exports have not been kept in this context. NATO country Turkey maintains good relations with both Russia and Ukraine.
Before Zelenskyi’s meeting with Erdogan, the Kremlin had announced that it wanted to “follow it very closely.” “It will be interesting for us to find out what was discussed. It is important,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow on Friday.
Peskov pointed to Russia’s “constructive” relationship with Turkey and praised Erdogan’s mediation efforts in the Ukraine conflict. The Turkish president “always made great efforts to solve various problems,” he said.
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