In a televised interview with CNN Turk, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkiye did not think that the Ukraine war would last that long after the peace talks in Istanbul.
"But following the NATO foreign ministers' meeting, it was the impression that...there are those within the NATO member states that want the war to continue, let the war continue and Russia get weaker," Cavusoglu said.
In a breakthrough, Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for peace talks in Istanbul on March 29 as the war continued with casualties piling up on both sides.
During the talks, Ukrainian officials signaled their readiness to negotiate a "neutral status," a key Russian demand, but demanded security guarantees for their country.
Russia, meanwhile, pledged to significantly decrease its military activities toward the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv to build up trust for future negotiations.
On the possibility of a meeting between Russia and Ukraine’s leaders in Turkiye, Cavusoglu said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in constant contact with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"President Erdogan will speak to the leaders again in the coming days. I spoke with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov today and with [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro] Kuleba yesterday," Cavusoglu added.
A Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in Turkiye is still on the table, he said.
"In principle, they both say positive things about getting together when the conditions are suitable."
ZZ/PR
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