President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky says that neither he nor Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba were invited to a meeting in Ankara on June 8, which will, in particular, consider the issue of Black Sea shipping and which will be attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs RF Sergey Lavrov.
“I was not invited. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has not been invited to date,” Zelensky said during a conversation with reporters on Monday, answering a related question.
According to him, he discussed with Turkish President Recemop Tayyip Erdogan, among others, the issue of mediation by the Turkish side in unblocking Ukrainian ports.
“For us, it is important that we are ready to produce grain… For us (important – IF) that there is a safe corridor of ships – that this or that fleet of this or that state will ensure the export of this grain to us. That’s all. And here we talked both with Britain and Turkey. Turkey is now finding a format to give us guarantees… I think because of this they are meeting with the Russians so that Russia will give Turkey guarantees that nothing will happen to their ships. I think so. But, however, the details of their meeting are unknown to me yet,” Zelensky said.
The President also said that negotiations on the export of grain are being held with the UN, as well as with the Baltic countries and Poland – on the export of some volume by rail, but this direction is not a priority due to the long delivery times. Through Odessa ports, according to him, Ukraine can export 10 million tons of grain monthly. “If now we have 22-25 million tons blocked there, but in the fall we may already have 75. What are we going to do? Therefore, we won’t be able to do without ports,” Zelensky stressed.
When asked under what conditions Ukraine can go for demining the coast of Odessa ports and who should be the guarantor for the Ukrainian side to do this, he replied: “I consider the strongest guarantee is our appropriate weapons that will be deployed in the region, the unblocking of another corridor to the port for the export of grain”.
“We are working on this with specific states, with specific anti-ship systems. We are working and are already getting a little, I can already state. I think this is the best guarantee,” Zelensky added.
Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN will gather in Istanbul in the coming days to discuss a plan of action on the situation around problems with grain exports, the Turkish Anadolu agency reports, citing its own data.
“The details of the road map will be discussed in the coming days during the meeting, which will be attended by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and UN representatives,” the statement said.
According to Anadolu, the meeting will consider issues related to “insurance and security of ships, as well as demining the region.”
The agency indicates that it is planned to create a coordination center in Istanbul, which “should allow sending about 20 million tons of grain and sunflower seeds from Russia and Ukraine to world markets.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that in a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he discussed in detail the threat to the global food market due to the actions of the Russian Federation, which blocked the Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
“Had an important conversation with Turkish President Erdogan. About the situation in Mariupol and the need to evacuate civilians and the wounded, about the need for an immediate exchange of blocked Ukrainian military. We discussed the negotiation process with Russia, defense issues. We touched in detail on the threat to the world food market, provoked by Russia, which blocked our Black Sea ports,” Zelensky said in a video message on Monday morning.
He stressed that the rise in food prices has already reached a critical level in many countries, and this is just the beginning.
“If Russia does not seek peace, the issue of food security in many countries will turn into a matter of the physical survival of millions of people, and hence the stability of state systems. An increasing number of political leaders in the world are aware of this threat. Therefore, we expect more pressure on Russia,” he said. head of state.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday reiterated that Ankara is ready to organize a meeting of the heads of Russia and Ukraine, Anadolu said.
“Turkey is making efforts to continue the Istanbul process between Russia and Ukraine, and is ready to organize a dialogue at the level of heads of state,” the agency said.
Erdoğan also expressed hope for progress in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations.
“There is progress. However, they are far from desired. We hope for progress. We do not lose hope,” Anadolu said, citing the Turkish leader.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Turkey demonstrate their readiness to become guarantors of Ukraine’s security, but there is still no final answer from anyone
“Today, those who demonstrate that they are ready – we don’t have any signatories yet, but there is a demonstration – from Johnson, from Britain, from the USA, from Italy, from Turkey. I think it will be separate from the European Union,” reports he said, said on Saturday in an interview with the Ukrainian online media outlet Ukrayinska Pravda.
“I spoke separately with Ursula (President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen), separately with Charles Michel (Head of the European Council Charles Michel – UP), France, Germany.
We will do the first circle of conversation in this format for five (Britain, USA, Germany, France, Poland). Then other countries will join,” Zelensky said.
According to the publication, Zelensky believes that Ukraine will not have a problem with weapons or sanctions against the aggressor country, but there will be issues with the military component.
Turkey is ready to provide ships to organize the evacuation of civilians and the wounded from Mariupol by sea, Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reported.
“Ankara’s readiness to support the evacuation process was brought to the attention of the Russian military attaché in Turkey, who was invited to our defense department. A similar initiative was transferred to Russian authorities and through the Turkish military attaché in Moscow. We are also coordinating our efforts with Ukrainian authorities through the military attaché in this country,” Akar said.
Akar also noted that Turkey continues to supply humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people.
The Turkish minister announced active contacts with the Russian Federation and Ukraine and on the issue of the safe exit of Turkish ships from Ukrainian ports.
Regarding the mine threat in the Black Sea, the minister noted that at the moment there are no problems for shipping.
