ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday pressed Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to declare a “unilateral” ceasefire in Ukraine.
“President Erdogan said that calls for peace and negotiations should be supported by a unilateral ceasefire and a vision for a fair solution,” his office quoted Erdogan as telling Putin in a telephone call.
Putin told Erdogan that he was open to dialogue with Ukraine if Kyiv accepts territories occupied by Moscow as Russian, the Kremlin said.
“Putin again confirmed Russia’s openness to serious dialogue on the condition of Kyiv authorities fulfilling the well-known and repeatedly voiced requirements of taking into account the new territorial realities,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Erdogan was due to follow the talks with a separate conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later on Thursday.
The Turkish leader has used his good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv to try and mediate an end to the war.
Turkey hosted two early rounds of peace talks and helped strike a UN-backed agreement restoring Ukrainian grain deliveries across the Black Sea.
Erdogan has also repeatedly tried to bring Putin and Zelensky to Turkey for a peace summit.
Erdogan’s call for a ceasefire followed a proposal earlier Thursday by Russia’s spiritual leader Patriarch Kirill for an Orthodox Christmas truce this week.
Erdogan has been able to maintain good relations with Putin by refusing to join Western sanction on Russia and ramping up bilateral trade during the war.
The two leaders now have tentative plans to set up a natural gas hub in Turkey that can offer Russia an alternate way of supplying Europe with fuel.
Erdogan’s office said that Turkey “has strengthened and will continue ot strengthen the infrastructure” of the proposed hub. The two leaders hope to “implement (the project) as soon as possible”, Erdogan’s office said.
In Moscow, Russia’s spiritual leader, Patriarch Kirill, called for a ceasefire in Ukraine on Orthodox Christmas, celebrated this week by both countries.
The 76-year-old Orthodox leader is a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin and his offensive in Ukraine.
He has given his blessing to Russian troops fighting in Ukraine and delivered heavily anti-Western and anti-Kyiv sermons throughout the conflict.
“I, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and of all Rus, appeal to all parties involved in the internecine conflict with a call to cease fire and establish a Christmas truce from 12:00 on January 6 to 00:00 on January 7 so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the Nativity of Christ,” he said on the church’s official website.
The Russian Orthodox Church has lost considerable influence in Ukraine since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
In 2019, part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church broke ties with Moscow—which has had spiritual dominance in much of Ukraine for centuries—in a historic schism.
The Kremlin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in many clerics who had continued to remain loyal to Kirill turning away from Moscow.
In May, the Moscow-backed branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church severed ties with Russia, citing Patriarch Kirill’s lack of condemnation of the fighting.
Patriarch Kirill has been sanctioned by Britain and Canada for his outspoken backing of Putin’s Ukraine offensive.
Russia said the death toll climbed in its worst single reported loss from a Ukrainian strike, which an increasingly criticised Moscow blamed on troops using mobile phones.
The Ukrainian military’s strategic communications unit has said nearly 400 Russian soldiers were killed in the town of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine, and even Russian commentators have said the death toll may be far higher than the 89 Russia has reported.
The death toll in Makiivka is the highest reported by the Russian military in a single strike since its troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The deadly strike came after months of discontent within Russia towards the military following a series of battlefield defeats and a hugely unpopular mobilisation drive.
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