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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday voiced hope that Türkiye will again take center stage in efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, signaling a possible revival of peace initiatives hosted on Turkish soil.
“Just as the negotiation table [between Russia and Ukraine] was established in Istanbul, the peace table will also be established in Türkiye in the not-too-distant future, and this bloody war will come to an end,” Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara.
His remarks came as Istanbul hosted the third round of renewed Russia-Ukraine peace talks on July 23, following earlier meetings in May and June.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed Erdogan’s sentiments, stating that Türkiye remains a favored platform for dialogue among all sides.
“Türkiye is certainly liked by all participants in the negotiation process, and we are grateful to Ankara and the Turkish leadership for their efforts to help find ways to resolve the situation around Ukraine,” Peskov said at a press briefing in Moscow.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov also praised Türkiye’s “facilitating role,” calling it “an important platform for dialogue and peace.”
After the latest round of talks, Ukraine proposed a heads-of-state summit by the end of August and reached consensus with Russia on continuing prisoner-of-war exchanges. However, Moscow’s suggestion to form three working groups for future swaps has reportedly gone unanswered by Kyiv.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, setting a new cease-fire deadline and warning of punitive measures if Russia fails to end the war within “10 or 12 days.”
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about...10 or 12 days from today. There’s no reason for waiting. It was 50 days, I wanted to be generous, but we don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a golf club in Scotland.
While outlining possible sanctions and secondary tariffs, Trump added that he would act reluctantly. “I love the Russian people, they’re great people,” he said, but condemned the ongoing violence, calling the war “really bloody.”
Trump expressed frustration over failed cease-fire efforts, noting, “This has happened on too many occasions and I don't like it,” after recounting multiple instances where missile strikes hit Kyiv shortly after peace seemed imminent.
He also voiced disappointment with Putin: “He goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever.”
“I’m going to reduce the 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer,” Trump said.
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While Erdogan hinted at potential top-level diplomacy, Peskov denied plans for a meeting between Putin and Trump in Türkiye. However, he did not rule out a possible encounter in China in the future.
“We still believe that first we need to do the work at the expert level… and then fix [the parameters] at the highest level, not the other way around,” Peskov said.
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