Erdogan: Putin, Zelenskyy ‘not yet ready’ for personal meeting – media

16:02, 02.09.2025 1 min read

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had discussed ways to end the war in Ukraine with Vladimir Putin during talks in China and with Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone, but that the parties were "not yet ready" for a leaders' meeting, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

According to the agency, Erdogan spoke to reporters aboard his plane on his way back from China, where he met with Putin, and then said he had called Zelenskyy. He noted that talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials held in Istanbul in recent months showed that the path to peace "remains open."

Turkey favours "raising the level of negotiations gradually" to turn hopes for peace into concrete results, he said, adding that any initiative would ultimately need to be handled at the leaders' level, though conditions were not yet in place.