Erdogan summons Putin for crunch meeting tomorrow - Turkey to demand Ukraine peace talks
The Turkish and Russian premiers have planned a meeting in Kazakhstan tomorrow which Kremlin aides expect will be "very interesting".
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has summoned Vladimir Putin for a crunch meeting in which he is expected to demand he negotiate peace with Ukraine. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed the two would descend on Kazakhstan for a “very interesting” meeting. He said: "Now many say that the Turks are ready to come up with other initiatives in the context of the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict."
"There are reports in the press that the Turkish side is putting forward specific considerations in this regard, I do not exclude that Erdoğan will actively touch on this topic during the Astana contact. So a very interesting and, I hope, useful discussion awaits us."
The leaders will arrive in the Kazakh capital of Astana today and speak on the sidelines of the sixth Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit.
Their orbiting meeting may touch on talks between Russia and the west, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previously suggested.
Russia and Turkey are two of 11 nations represented in Astana on Thursday for the CICA conference.
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The other nine are Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a key Russia ally, will also attend as an "observer".
And it will include Vice Presidents from Vietnam and China as organisers anticipate "one of the significant post-pandemic foreign policy events in the country and on the continent".
While CICA will welcome Russia and other western critics, the rest of the world is more boldly rejecting Putin and his regime.
The United Nations (UN), of which Russia is a member, has publicly rejected a request from Russian officials to hold a secret ballot on recognising Putin's recent power grab.
While rejecting the request, several delegates made statements in support of Ukraine.
Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State for defence, described Russia's actions as "completely unacceptable" in a brief statement.
He told other attendees that "now is the time to speak out in support for Ukraine".
Mr Blinken added: "It is not the time for abstentions, placating words, or equivocations under claims of neutrality. The core principles of the UN Charter are at stake."
Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's ambassador, gave a rousing speech in which he accused Russia of leaving a "trail of blood" and "smell of smoldering human flesh".