Turkey’s President Invites Putin, Zelenskyy for Talks, Over 15,000 Turks Evacuated

Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan offered to host talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey. Erdogan made the offer on Thursday in a phone call with Putin, his office announced. Erdogan made the offer a week after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met in Turkey for talks that failed to yield a breakthrough on a cease-fire and other humanitarian issues.

The Daily Sabah reported on Thursday that Turkey has evacuated 15,196 citizens since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, citing Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Turkey has been coordinating evacuation efforts with Ukraine and Russia, Cavusoglu said.

Some 30 Turkish citizens remain sheltering in the Sultan Suleiman mosque in the besieged city of Mariupol. Some 50 Turks who had been talking shelter in the mosque were evacuated through a humanitarian corridor in recent days in cars full of refugees.