ISTANBUL: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Turkiye on Tuesday for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara, the presidency said on Monday.
The pair will discuss steps to “further strengthen cooperation between the two countries,” Erdogan’s chief press aide Fahrettin Altun wrote on X.
The Ukrainian president will fly to Ankara from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he landed on Sunday for talks on economic cooperation.
On Wednesday, he is due to travel to Saudi Arabia.
It will be Zelensky’s third visit to Turkiye since Russian troops invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago. He last visited in March 2024.
Zelensky to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday: spokesman to AFP
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbours, with Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peace-maker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Zelensky’s visit to Turkiye comes on the same day that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets US officials in Riyadh as part of what the Kremlin says are efforts to repair ties with Washington.
US and Russian officials are preparing for a summit between their two leaders, with Europe and Kyiv worried they will try to end the war in Ukraine without them.
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