Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed the opinion that russia would return to Ukraine the territories seized after February 24. The Turkish leader stated this in an interview with PBS, quoted by the Anadolu Turkish agency.
Erdoğan expressed his conviction that putin intends to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, and the return of the territories seized after February 24 should help this.
"When we talk about a bilateral agreement, this is what we mean. The return of the occupied lands will be very important for establishing peace in Ukraine. This is what is needed. Putin has taken certain steps, we have taken certain steps. The occupied lands will be returned to Ukraine", - Erdoğan said.
The Turkish president also told that since 2014, he has methodically called on putin to return Crimea to Ukraine, since people of the Turkic ethnic group also live there. According to Erdoğan, this step would calm Turkey and Ukraine.
"These people and our compatriots. We told the russians that if you take this step, it will calm both us and Ukraine, it will calm the Crimean Tatars as well. But, unfortunately, not a single step has been taken in this direction since then", - Erdoğan said.
As previously reported, the largest Turkish bank refused to service russian Mir cards.