Turkish speaker claims some states prevented Russia-Ukraine peace

The speaker of Türkiye's parliament has said an early peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine failed because some countries were unwilling to see the conflict end.

Speaking at the NATO Parliamentary Summit in Istanbul on June 29, Numan Kurtulmuş said Türkiye had invested considerable diplomatic effort in bringing the two sides together and had overseen negotiations that made significant progress, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

He said Russian and Ukrainian delegations had met at the Presidential Office in Istanbul's Dolmabahçe district in 2022 and had produced draft agreements that were close to a final settlement.

"Unfortunately, because of the circumstances at the time, some countries did not want peace, and it was therefore not achieved," Kurtulmuş said.

He did not identify the countries he was referring to or provide further details.

Kurtulmuş argued that the talks had nevertheless delivered concrete results. He pointed to the Black Sea grain initiative, which allowed Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea and helped ease concerns over global food shortages, particularly in Africa. He also highlighted a series of prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine that followed the negotiations.

Addressing delegates at the summit, Kurtulmuş called for a similar diplomatic approach to be applied to other regional and global crises.

He cited what he described as a recent positive step towards ending the conflict between the United States and Iran, saying such efforts demonstrated the importance of dialogue in resolving international disputes.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held face-to-face talks in Istanbul in March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The negotiations ultimately failed to produce a peace agreement, and the war has continued for more than four years.

By Aghakazim Guliyev