Hostility in Ukraine must stop, Erdoğan tells Putin

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the need for “immediate cessation” of hostilities in the Ukraine conflict, as he spoke with his Russian counterpart in a phone call on Saturday.

Erdoğan conveyed to President Vladimir Putin “the importance Türkiye attaches to the immediate cessation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict through negotiations,” the Presidential Communications Directorate said in a statement.

He also thanked Putin for his “positive stance regarding the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.”

Türkiye, the United Nations, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal in Istanbul last July to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian ports that were blocked after the war began in February.

The agreement was extended for a second time last week for 120 days, just before it was due to expire.

Ukraine has so far exported nearly 25 million tons of mainly corn and wheat under the deal, according to the U.N. The top primary destinations for shipments have been China, Italy, Spain, Türkiye and the Netherlands. Erdoğan and Putin also discussed “steps to strengthen Türkiye-Russia relations,” the statement added.

The Turkish president said the countries “could take further steps based on the economic cooperation agreed upon in Sochi,” referring to their meeting in the Russian resort city last August.

During those talks, Erdoğan and Putin had agreed to boost bilateral trade volume to $100 billion and take concrete steps to strengthen energy, trade, and economic cooperation.

Erdoğan had said they reached an agreement to use the Russian ruble for trade and signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral economic and commercial ties.

The two leaders also discussed ongoing developments in Syria and emphasized the importance of maintaining the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus.

In a sign of potential rapprochement between Türkiye and the Bashar Assad regime, Syrian and Turkish defense ministers held landmark talks in Moscow in December, alongside their Russian counterpart, marking the highest-level encounter since the start of the Syrian war more than a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Putin extended greetings to the Turkish people and Erdoğan for the month of Ramadan, the statement said.