ISTANBUL: Turkiye is ready to host a peace summit between Russia and Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul.
NATO member Turkiye has been positioning itself as a potential mediator between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia launched its invasion more than two years ago.
Erdogan’s proposal comes as Ukraine faces mounting pressure on the front line, where it has lost ground to Moscow in recent months amid hold-ups to aid from its Western allies.
“We are ready to host a peace summit where Russia is also present,” Erdogan told a press conference alongside the Ukrainian leader.
“While we continue our solidarity with Ukraine, we will continue our work to end the war with a just peace on the basis of negotiations,” Erdogan said.
Zelensky dismissed the idea of negotiating directly with Russia, arguing that Ukraine and Western leaders must set out peace on their own terms.
He noted there would be an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland, where Kyiv would promote its own “peace formula,” but ruled out Russia’s participation.
“We don’t see how we can invite people who block, destroy and kill everything. We want to get results,” Zelensky said.
He called the talks with Erdogan “productive” and thanked Turkiye for its mediation efforts on Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports and prisoner exchanges.
Ankara has sought to maintain good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, helping the two sign a now shuttered agreement to ensure the safe passage of grain via the Black Sea in July 2022.
Erdogan said he and Zelensky had discussed issues of port security, navigation safety in the Black Sea, prisoner exchanges and food security, and that they shared the same opinions.
“We are not hopeless,” he said.
“We believe that there are some opportunities that Turkiye can provide with its stance.”
Turkiye hosted failed ceasefire talks between Kyiv and Moscow in the first weeks of the war and wants to revive them.
Its strategic location on the Black Sea and its control of the Bosphorus Strait gives it a unique military, political and economic role in the conflict.
In July 2022, Ankara with the United Nations brokered the Black Sea grain deal, the most significant diplomatic agreement so far reached between Kyiv and Moscow.
Moscow ditched the initiative — which allowed the safe passage of Ukrainian agricultural exports across the mine-laden Black Sea — a year later, complaining that the terms were unfair.
Since the collapse of the deal, Kyiv has used an alternative shipping route hugging the coastline to avoid contested international waters.
Turkiye has been lobbying hard for an agreement to ensure cargo can once again navigate those waters in safety.
Turkiye’s Western allies have expressed concern over its relations with Moscow. Ankara is reliant on Russian energy and has faced scrutiny as Russia seeks to avoid Western trading restrictions.
The United States has sanctioned several Turkish companies for helping Russia purchase goods that could be used by its armed forces.
The Erdogan-Zelensky meeting comes a week after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan at a diplomatic forum in Antalya.
President Vladimir Putin was to visit Turkiye last month, but postponed the trip, according to Turkish and Russian media citing diplomatic sources.
The Kremlin has said it is rescheduling the visit, but has given no date.
Russia and Ukraine both accused each other of killing civilians in drone strikes deep behind enemy lines on Friday.
A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border region of Belgorod killed two people, the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, a Russian drone attack on the town of Vovchansk killed a man and a woman in a car, regional head Oleg Sinegubov said.
Turkiye ready to host Ukraine-Russia peace summit, Erdogan says
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Turkiye ready to host Ukraine-Russia peace summit, Erdogan says
- Turkish president added Ankara supported Kyiv’s territorial integrity
White House steps up attacks on CNN
- Communications director Steven Cheung calls CNN cowardly for not inviting Trump adviser Stephen Miller to be interviewed
- On Wednesday, President Donald Trump accused a CNN journalist of being “an arm of the Democrat Party”
WASHINGTON: The White House on Thursday intensified its attacks on CNN, the news network at the center of a financial battle that President Donald Trump is tied up in politically and through family.
Echoing the president’s frequent anti-media barbs, senior members of his administration lashed out.
“CNN = Chicken News Network,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X Thursday, calling CNN cowardly for not inviting Trump adviser Stephen Miller to be interviewed “presumably because they are scared Stephen will school them.”
Vice President JD Vance then shared the post, adding: “If CNN wants to be a real news network it should feature important voices from our administration.”
A CNN spokesperson said Miller would be welcome back on the channel, Fox News reported Thursday.
“As a news organization, we make editorial decisions about the stories we cover and when, and that depends on the news priorities of the day. We look forward to having Stephen on again in the future as the news warrants,” the CNN spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The harshest attack on CNN from the Trump administration came from an official White House account called Rapid Response 47, which went after Kaitlan Collins, one of the network’s most prominent correspondents, saying she “is not a journalist. She is a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party.”
On Wednesday, the president confronted another CNN journalist similarly, and said “you know you work for the Democrats, don’t you? You are basically an arm of the Democrat Party.”
CNN has yet to comment publicly on those allegations. In the past, the network has responded to criticism of political bias by asserting that it is committed to objective journalism and fairness.
CNN for sale
Founded in 1980 to provide global television news coverage, CNN is currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate at the heart of a bidding war between streaming giant Netflix and Paramount Skydance, the latter of which is led by CEO David Ellison, son of Trump ally Larry Ellison.
The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has joined Paramount’s bid through his investment firm.
And Trump has already indicated he intends to get involved in the government’s decision to approve or block a sale, which would typically involve the Justice Department.
Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into Ellison’s hands.
Under the Netflix deal, Warner Bros. Discovery would sell off CNN and other cable news properties separately before closing the sale of its studio and streaming operations.
The 79-year-old president said Wednesday he wants to ensure CNN gets new ownership as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery sale, seeming to favor a Paramount purchase.
“I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” Trump said.
