Türkiye’s stance on Ukraine ‘perplexing’ – Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticized Türkiye for continuing to supply weapons to Ukraine while proclaiming its readiness to act as a mediator in the conflict. In an interview with the Turkish news outlet Hürriyet published on Friday, Lavrov called the inconsistency in Ankara’s approach “perplexing.”

Since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in 2022, Türkiye has maintained close ties with Moscow and has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution, offering to mediate peace efforts. However, Ankara has also been providing Kiev with essential military hardware, such as Bayraktar drones. Turkish defense company Baykar earlier this year started building a drone factory near Kiev, while another Turkish firm, Repkon, has supplied equipment to a US factory in Texas that produces munitions for Kiev’s army.

“Regrettably, Ankara continues its military-technical cooperation with the Kiev regime. Türkish weapons are being used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to kill Russian soldiers and civilians,” Lavrov said in his interview, noting that the situation is “perplexing in light of the Türkish leadership’s statements of readiness to offer mediation services.”

Lavrov did note that Türkye “played a crucial role” when it offered Istanbul as a venue for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine back in 2022. Those negotiations culminated in a draft treaty that was preliminarily approved by the two sides. However, Kiev ended up abandoning the talks under pressure from the West and declared that a military victory over Moscow was its only aim in the conflict. Lavrov lamented that the talks failed and reiterated that they were “ultimately undermined by the Anglo-Saxons,” who prevented Zelensky from reaching agreements.

The Russian diplomat stressed that Russia is “open” to reaching a political settlement in the conflict but noted that it will not agree to a temporary ceasefire. According to him, a peace deal should focus on eliminating the “root causes” of the conflict, such as NATO’s eastward expansion, threats to Russia’s security interests and the Kiev regime’s persecution of Russians and Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine.

“At the moment, our opponents do not appear to want peace… It seems unlikely that any country, including Türkiye, will succeed in mediation efforts,” Lavrov stated, citing Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region and talk in the West of allowing Kiev use long-range missiles for strikes deep inside Russia as issues preventing peace talks from starting.