Erdogan says will speak with Putin on Monday

JOHANNESBURG: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday he would speak with Russia’s Vladimir Putin Monday, just days after the US unveiled a controversial plan to end the Ukraine war.

“Tomorrow I will have a phone call with Mr. Putin,” he told a news conference at the G20 in South Africa, following pushback from Kyiv and its allies over the draft plan which accepts some of Russia’s hardline demands.

US President Donald Trump has given Ukraine until November 27 to approve the plan to end the nearly four-year conflict.

Erdogan said Turkiye would leave no stone unturned to try and broker an end to the conflict.

“So many people have died; I will discuss with (Putin) what steps we can take to stop these deaths. After these discussions, I believe I will have the opportunity to discuss the outcome with our European partners, Mr. Trump, and other friends,” he said.

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On November 19, Erdogan hosted Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara for talks in which he urged both sides to return to the negotiating table in Istanbul where they had held three rounds of negotiations earlier this year.

Zelensky had said he was heading to Ankara to try and revive US involvement in diplomatic efforts to end the Russian invasion, saying he wanted to revive the frozen peace talks.

Reviving the grain corridor?

But Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff did not attend the talks in Turkiye and Zelensky walked away from the meeting with little to show for it.

Just days later, details emerged of Trump’s 28-point plan for ending the conflict, which caught Kyiv and its European allies off guard as it would effectively force Ukraine to give up land, cut its army and pledge never to join NATO.

The Istanbul talks, which took place between May and July, failed to yield anything more than large-scale prisoner exchanges.

Erdogan also said he would ask Putin about reviving a short-lived grain deal brokered by Turkiye and the UN in 2022 to grant safe passage for Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea.

The agreement worked for just over a year before Russia withdrew on grounds a separate agreement to ease sanctions on its own agricultural exports was not being implemented.

“The grain corridor initiative was actually intended to pave the way for peace. Although it succeeded to a certain extent, it did not continue. Now in tomorrow’s meetings I will ask Mr Putin about this again,” Erdogan said.

“I think it would be very beneficial if we could restart this process again.”