Zelensky will visit Turkey on February 18 at Erdogan's invitation

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Turkey on February 18 at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting will discuss "strategic partnership" and ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. The leaders will also exchange views on "recent developments in Ukraine and other regional and global issues," Fahrettin Altun, a spokesman for the Turkish presidential administration, wrote.

On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara was ready to play any role in ensuring peace in Ukraine and helping the country rebuild. He said reaching an agreement would be "very difficult." “In an ideal world, we would certainly like Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be preserved. But at the same time, the war is ongoing and, unfortunately, unpleasant decisions have to be made. Now the parties are trying to make this choice: what to give, what to keep, what to talk about later,” Fidan said. He also noted that all participants in the conflict, including those directly fighting, are putting their priorities first.

On February 18, a meeting of US and Russian representatives will also take place in Saudi Arabia. While Zelensky announced his meeting with Erdogan, Kiev said that it knew nothing about these negotiations and would not participate in them. Earlier, it had said that it would come to the negotiating table with Vladimir Putin to stop the war after the peace plan of “US President Donald Trump and Europe” appeared in Ukraine.

However, so far, Washington has only presented Zelensky with a partnership agreement on the use of Ukraine’s rare metals reserves. According to the document, Kiev must give the United States 50 percent of all mineral resources in exchange for American aid. Zelensky refused to sign the agreement until security guarantees were provided. Later, he announced that Ukraine also wants to receive guarantees similar to the "Israeli option." He recalled that when Iran attacked Tel Aviv, the United States, France, Great Britain and even Jordan provided assistance to this country with their air defense forces.

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes stressed that "economic relations with the United States are the best guarantee against future attacks." Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”