Russian, Turkish top diplomats discuss Russia-Ukraine war
ANKARA
The Turkish and Russian top diplomats exchanged a phone conversation on Aug. 7, a day after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a high-level meeting to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to diplomatic sources, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, discussed the recent developments regarding the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. They did not provide further details.
The exchange came just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow which resulted in an agreement for a snap bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin next week.
Although the venue has not been yet announced, Istanbul has been frequently discussed and proposed by the leaders as a potential address to hold such a high-level meeting to end the war.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been calling on Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to come to Istanbul to end the war with the participation of U.S. President Trump.
Istanbul has already hosted three rounds of direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in May, June and July.
