Ukraine and Turkey have the same vision that no one has the right to impose on our states and peoples anything in the Black Sea region that does not meet the interests of our states and peoples.

This was stated at a press conference in Istanbul on the night from Friday to Saturday after a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I am grateful to Turkey for its continued support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine," he said. According to Zelenskyy, "we discussed separately the situation in our Crimea, which Russia still illegally controls and uses as a springboard for threats and dangers."

"In any case, we will restore our legitimate control over Crimea and return security to the peninsula and justice to all people in Crimea. In particular, the Crimean Tatar people, who are now, unfortunately, once again subjected to severe repression and pressure from Russia," the president said.

Speaking about the Black Sea Grain Initiative, he said "recently, Russia, unfortunately, has been blocking the movement of ships with food along the corridors in the Black Sea as much as possible. Russia behaves as if it owns the entire Black Sea, as if it is the owner here."

According to Zelenskyy, they discussed "various common projects of Ukraine and Turkey, which we can really implement together to strengthen our states and provide more security and more jobs and more growth."

"This concerns cooperation in the military-industrial complex, in the development of technology, the production of drones, and other strategic industries," he said.

Zelenskyy said the Turkish president "did a lot to help free our people from Russian captivity. I want to thank you separately for this."