Erdogan plans to dicuss settlement of Ukrainian crisis with Putin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on September 28 that he plans to speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on September 29 to discuss prospects for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, TASS reports.

"I hope to discuss with esteemed Mr Putin the problem of the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on September 29. I am not pessimistic. But, it would be naive to receive a positive result immediately. The referendums in four Ukrainian cities create problems [in the crisis settlement], but everything could be settled diplomatically. A similar situation happened in 2014 in the example of Crimea, but it did not work back then," he said in an interview with CNN Turk.

He described the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine as a "catastrophe."

"The cost of the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict would be a catastrophe. We should not speak about it and even think about it. It is necessary to use diplomatic means to prevent such a development of the conflict," Erdogan said.