Turkey supports Ukraine's NATO membership aspirations, urging a return to peace efforts to end the ongoing conflict since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Ukraine to return to peace talks, stating that a fair peace creates no losers.
Zelenskyy thanked Erdogan for his support, which comes ahead of a key NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Ukrainian leader has lobbied intensively for his embattled country to be invited to join the Western military alliance, arguing that Ukraine has become Europe's last line of defense against Russia's aggression. Zelenskyy visited the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria to drum up support for Ukraine's NATO membership bid ahead of the military alliance's July 11-12 summit.
The timeline for Ukraine's membership remains unclear, with the United States dampening Ukraine's hopes of any rapid accession to the alliance. NATO countries have debated when and how Ukraine can become a member and under what circumstances. Member countries such as Germany insist that certain conditions must be met, including the military being under civilian and democratic control. It remains unclear what exactly Ukraine will be offered at the summit in the Lithuanian capital, and Zelenskyy has acknowledged that Kyiv is unlikely to be able to join NATO while at war with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened unspecified action if Ukraine joins NATO. The Kremlin is closely monitoring Erdogan's talks in Turkey, which has tried to break its international isolation by cultivating strong relations with the Turkish leader Erdogan. Erdogan has tried to portray himself as a neutral mediator between Kyiv and Moscow, substantially boosting wartime trade with Russia while also supplying Ukraine with drones and other weapons that helped keep Kremlin forces from seizing Kyiv in the first weeks of the war.
Erdogan risked drawing the ire of Putin by delivering unequivocal support for Ukraine's NATO aspiration. He said Putin will visit Turkey next month and that he and the Russian president would discuss possible prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine, which Erdogan has helped arrange in the past. He also said he would push Putin to extend a deal that Turkey and the United Nations had brokered last year under which Ukraine was able to ship grain to the global market from ports on the Black Sea.
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