ANTALYA. A little while ago in the seaside city of Antalya, Turkey, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers Sergej Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba met for the first time since the start of hostilities in Ukraine two weeks ago. A meeting that marks a turning point and a success for Turkey, which since the beginning of the crisis has played the role of mediator between the two countries, with which it maintains good diplomatic and commercial relations. After the three meetings held previously in Belarus – however considered by the Ukrainians as non-neutral territory, and therefore not ideal for a real negotiation – the summit ended with nothing. “An important first meeting that could represent the first step towards a meeting at higher levels”. This is how Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu described it, present during the meeting between the two sides. Kuleba, after an hour and a half of the conference, described the conversation with the other party as “difficult”. “They are two countries at war. We can imagine the conditions in which we discussed, ”Cavusoglu continued.
The Ukrainian foreign minister then stressed that he had failed to make progress on the call for a 24-hour ceasefire and a solution to the humanitarian crisis that has already caused more than 2 million people. “There seem to be other decision-making powers in Russia,” he said in a provocative tone, evidently referring to the Kremlin. For his part, Lavrov explicitly stated that this meeting could not take the place of the talks currently taking place in Belarus.
After the meeting, the two ministers spoke in two different rooms simultaneously. Ukrainian minister Kuleba accused Russia of not opening and respecting the humanitarian corridors, especially in the city of Mariupol, where the situation would be the most “worrying”, adding that – “Minister Lavrov was unable to keep this commitment”. The counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov, instead reiterated Russia’s willingness to maintain humanitarian corridors and to have them operational, indicating as the main obstacle “the Ukrainian forces that would not allow the evacuation of civilians, held hostages” . “We want a solution with diplomatic means,” he added.
Cease-fire and humanitarian corridors were not the only topics of discussion. On the sidelines of the negotiations, Lavrov, for the first time in front of an audience of journalists from all over the world since the beginning of the war, wanted to elaborate the Russian reasons for the invasion, specifying that “Russia has not invaded Ukraine, rather it had to act to counter a serious threat to ethnicity, Russian culture, language and population ”. He particularly dwelt on the importance of the invasion by the presence of biological laboratories in Ukraine, which would have been financed by the United States: «They are a danger to us. How is it possible that Europe had no information on this? The Americans did it in many countries of the former USSR ». In addition to the presence of laboratories considered very dangerous for Russia’s internal security, Lavrov then focused on the presence of a “hostile government in Ukraine and the growing influence of NATO in the region and its willingness to abandon its state as a country.” without atomic bomb “. “We, Russia” – he said – “We are not a threat to the West and to NATO, we just want Ukraine to become a demilitarized country” declaring that “a neutral Ukraine is in everyone’s interest and for everyone’s safety. “The countries that finance and support Ukraine militarily are putting themselves in danger. Russia has never talked about either the atomic war or the third world war. Nobody wants to expand. It is the Western countries that continue to talk about it. How can you just imagine such a thing? It was President Biden who answered the question of “how to find an alternative to sanctions against Russia with: the third world war”.
Finally, Lavrov dwelt on the sanctions against his country and the need for Russia to become “independent of all”. “This is a war on to destroy our economy. We must and are finding ways to become independent, “he said, accusing the West of” clear political aggression. We have never exploited gas and we will not use gas as an instrument of war. But if European governments prohibit their companies from working in Russia, they will freeze ».
Finally, when asked about the bombed hospital in Mariupol a few hours before the start of the summit, he concluded by saying that «it had been occupied by the Azov battalion. The group is trying to turn Ukrainians into human shields ». “We want a free and denazified Ukraine,” he concluded, getting up and leaving the room full of journalists from all over the world.
Both sides were able to express their views. There is already talk of a possible meeting between Putin and Zelensky, which the Russian president would like to organize. But in Antalya, nothing concrete has been done as the humanitarian situation and the number of victims at the front worsen.