After Turkey released five Ukrainian war prisoners who were earlier handed over by Russia to Turkey in the context of a prisoner exchange deal, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that they hope Turkey’s relationship with Ukraine will not be aimed against Moscow.
The Ukrainian soldiers were allowed by Ankara to return to their country following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Turkey on Friday. The prisoners had been brought to Turkey in September in a prisoner swap brokered by Ankara, under terms that required the soldiers to remain in Turkey until the end of the war.
Asked by reporters on Monday to comment on Ankara’s moves to transfer the soldiers to Kiev and to launch the production of Bayraktar drones in Ukraine, Peskov said:
“Certainly, as a modern state, Turkey has the absolute right to develop relations with any country, including Ukraine, but, being partners with Turkey, we hope that that relationship will not be aimed against us.”
Peskov described relations between Russia and Turkey as “quite close, developed, multifaceted and mutually beneficial.” However, “there are certain areas where we have differences,” he added.
The release of Ukrainian soldiers was among the issues Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan discussed on the phone on Sunday according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, who said that Lavrov and Fidan reiterated the importance of strengthening trust in relations between their countries, and discussed the latest situation around Ukraine and prospects for further efforts to ensure global food security.
Gerçek News