Putin and Erdogan hold call on Ukraine conflict – Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have agreed to intensify contacts between the two countries’ diplomats on settling the Ukraine conflict, the Kremlin said on Monday following a phone conversation between the two leaders.
Putin and Erdogan discussed a recently leaked US-drafted proposal on resolving the ongoing hostilities. Washington presented the plan to both Moscow and Kiev earlier this month. The details were not officially made public, but media reports indicated that it included de facto recognition of Crimea and Donbass as Russian, as well as a cap of 600,000 personnel on the Ukrainian military and a requirement for Kiev to stay out of NATO.
Putin has confirmed that Moscow received the plan but said it has yet to be discussed “in detail.” Speaking to Erdogan on Monday, the Russian president said the proposals were consistent with the understandings reached during the Alaska summit in August, and that the initiative could serve as the basis for a potential peace agreement.
Moscow is interested in resolving the Ukraine conflict through political and diplomatic means, the Russian president stated.
Erdogan reaffirmed Ankara’s readiness to help Russia and Ukraine reach a “just and lasting peace.”
The Turkish city of Istanbul served as a venue for three rounds of talks between Moscow and Kiev earlier this year, yielding some progress on humanitarian issues, including POW exchanges. Putin also said in September that Turkish mediation in the Ukraine conflict continues to be valued and would be desirable in the future.
The phone call occurred while US officials were discussing Washington’s peace proposals with the EU and Ukrainian representatives in Geneva. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said afterward that a “tremendous amount of progress” had been made on the plan but “there is still some work to be done.”
