Turkish Foreign Minister: Istanbul agrees to hold leaders' summit with Zelensky, Putin and Trump

During the third round of talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, an agreement in principle is reached to hold a summit with the participation of the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. About said minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Hakan Fidan in an interview with NTV.

According to him, the leaders of Ukraine and Russia have agreed to a "face-to-face" meeting in Turkey, but the final date and agenda should be agreed upon after the key technical issues of the ceasefire are resolved.

"The good news is that we have reached an agreement in principle to hold a summit at the level of leaders in Turkey – under the patronage of our president (Recep Tayyip Erdogan - ed.) – with the participation of Putin, Zelensky and the US President Donald Trump. However, the leaders disagree on the conditions: they have different requirements for a ceasefire in order to participate in the summit. And this is where the task of the negotiating delegations is to agree on these technical details...," Fidan noted.

At the same time, the diplomat emphasized the need for a "gradual, methodical preparatory process" to avoid disrupting the agreements and not disturbing the psychological balance of the participants.

"First, the parties must agree on the timing and mechanisms of the ceasefire, and only then can we talk about the final format of the meeting. We are open to dialogue and ready to provide a safe and neutral platform for both presidents," Fidan said.

• on July 23, the following took place third round ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul, during which Kyiv offered Moscow to hold a meeting of leaders by the end of August with the participation of Zelenskyy and Putin, as well as the leaders of Turkey and the United States.
• on July 24, Zelenskyy said that Russia had begun talking to Ukraine about the Russian dictator's meeting with him and this is already a movement towards a certain format of the meeting.
• on July 25, Turkish President Erdogan announced that will hold conversations with his American counterpart and the Russian dictator about a possible meeting with Zelensky in Istanbul.