The Kremlin said on Wednesday it expects Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to make a concrete offer to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to mediate the conflict in Ukraine when the two leaders meet in Kazakhstan on Thursday.

“The Turks will offer their mediation. If (Russian-Ukrainian) contacts will take place, they will be on the territory of Turkey,” Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yury Ushakov told the media, Agerpres reports.

“Erdogan will probably propose something official,” he added, saying he expected “an interesting and useful discussion.”

Ushakov once again assessed the position of Turkey, which “in principle did not join the illegitimate sanctions of the West” imposed against Russia due to its attack on Ukraine.

This “will give an additional impetus to the strengthening of Russian-Turkish economic cooperation”, he estimated.

Turkey, a NATO member heavily dependent on Russian gas and oil, has been making efforts to maintain relations with both Ukraine and Russia since the February 24 Russian offensive.

Ankara played a key role in the September prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine and in July’s agreement between the two countries under the auspices of the United Nations, which allowed the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea and the Bosphorus.

In March, it held two meetings of representatives of Russia and Ukraine on its territory for negotiations, which eventually broke down, with the two camps blaming each other.

Erdogan pretends to be a privileged mediator and wants to bring the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table

Erdogan has met with Putin three times in the past three months and regularly speaks by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

The President of Turkey presents himself as a privileged mediator and has long wanted to bring the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday asked Russia and Ukraine to cease fire “as soon as possible”.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, speaking before an emergency virtual meeting of the leaders of the G7 countries on Tuesday, reiterated that there is nothing more to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, who announced in September the annexation of four Ukrainian regions. Crimea in 2014.

Since earlier this week, Russia has escalated the conflict after firing dozens of missiles across Ukraine, destroying energy infrastructure and attacking civilian targets in retaliation for the partial damage to the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean peninsula to Russian territory, over the weekend in the city after explosion, which he attributed to the Ukrainian special services.

Reacting to these statements, Yuriy Ushakov told the media on Wednesday: “I would like to tell him that you should never say ‘never.’

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