Today, November 18, Turkish President Recep Erdogan wants to present at the G20 leadersʼ meeting in Rio de Janeiro his proposal to freeze the Russian-Ukrainian war under the current conditions.
This was reported by the Bloomberg agency with reference to sources.
According to sources, Erdogan will propose to postpone the discussion of Ukraineʼs accession to NATO for at least 10 years.
The Turkish proposal also includes the creation of a demilitarized zone in eastern Donbas, where Russia has controlled large areas since 2014. Erdogan will offer to station international troops there as an additional guarantee, as well as guarantee Ukraine military supplies as compensation for agreeing not to join NATO.
Turkish officials admit that it will be difficult for Ukraine to accept such a proposal, but they believe that this is the most realistic approach. They seek to postpone discussions about the long-term fate of the occupied territories and focus primarily on ensuring a stable ceasefire.
Erdogan hopes he can convince Zelensky to take part in peace talks in Istanbul because he has seen intelligence suggesting Ukraine could lose much more territory in the next few months if the fighting does not stop, the sources said. But prospects on the battlefield also give Putin an incentive to keep fighting, Bloomberg notes.
- The G20 summit will be held on November 18-19. Zelensky will not participate in the summit, as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva "ignored Zelenskyʼs increasingly desperate requests for an invitation," writes Bloomberg.
- The head of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will also not go to the summit. He stated that he did not want to disrupt the work of the forum due to the fact that there was an international arrest warrant for him.
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