Türkiye ready to push for ‘local ceasefires’ in Ukraine: Kalın

ANKARA

Türkiye is ready to push for local ceasefires in Ukraine and warned that neither Moscow nor Kiev had the military means to “win the war,” the spokesperson of the Turkish presidency said on Jan. 14.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s foreign policy adviser İbrahim Kalın conceded that it seemed unlikely that the warring sides were ready to strike an “overarching peace deal” in the coming months.

But he said that the brutal cost of fighting might soon see them reconsider and accept localised truces in specific parts of the war zone.”Türkiye is willing to push for local ceasefires and small localised de-escalations,” Kalın told reporters.

“Neither party is in a position to win the war militarily, on the ground.” Erdoğan has used his good relations with both Moscow and Kiev to try and mediate an end to the nearly 11-month war.

NATO member Türkiye hosted two early rounds of peace talks and helped strike a U.N.-backed agreement restoring Ukrainian grain deliveries across the Black Sea

The president has also held repeated rounds of phone consultations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at finding common ground.

Kalın also said Russia was primarily interested in “security guarantees” from NATO and respect on the global stage.”

“What Russia wants is to be respected as a major player and to [avoid] having NATO in their backyard,” Kalın said. “Ukraine is not going to join NATO but they need to get enough security guarantee from Russia.”