Russian and Turkish foreign ministers spoke on the telephone by Sunday, a day after Ankara prompted criticism from Moscow by sending home five Ukrainian commanders in what Russian officials call a violation of a prisoner exchange deal.
The two ministries said that Sergei Lavrov and Hakan Fidan discussed the recent developments in Ukraine and a Black Sea grain export agreement that lifted a Russian de facto blockade of Kyiv's ports last year.
Russia Criticizes Turkey Over Prisoner Exchange Deal
Russian officials have recently threatened to quit the great export deal as it is set to be renewed on July 17, arguing that its demands to facilitate sales of its grain and fertilizer have not yet been met.
On the other hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that he was trying to press Russia to extend the grain export deal, which was brokered last year by Ankara and the United Nations, by at least three more months, as per Reuters.
But the Russian ministry said that the two sides had focused on recent developments around Ukraine, which includes Ankara's latest move to return detained commanders of Ukraine's Azov unit. The troops in question were responsible for defending a steelworks located in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol last year.
Moscow captured the city after laying the area to waste, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths after a three-month-long siege. The Azov unit led the city's defense and held out in the steelworks for several weeks before Kyiv ordered them to surrender to Russian forces.
The unit commanders, who were considered heroes in Ukraine while being criticized in Russia, were later released in a prisoner swap in September. However, their release was under the terms that they remain in Turkey until the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Turkey's Neutral Stance in the Russia-Ukraine War
Another topic that Russia and Turkey talked about is the court of continuing weapons supplies to Ukraine, which Moscow officials said was "destructive." The Russian ministry added that Ankara's attention was drawn to the destructiveness of the course of continuing to supply weapons to the Kyiv regime, according to Alarabiya News.
The situation comes as Turkey shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea and has good ties with both nations. Ankara officials have tried to remain as neutral as possible amid the war and have maintained a delicate balance with diplomatic ties with Moscow while also supplying Kyiv with weapons.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the news about the commanders being sent home, greeting them at Istanbul airport while he was on a trip to Turkey. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that sending the commanders home was nothing but a "direct violation" of the terms of existing agreements.
Peskov also compared the situation to the "failure of the counteroffensive" that Ukraine launched and Turkey's attempt to show its "solidarity" ahead of a NATO summit scheduled for July 11 to July 12 in Vilnius, said The Moscow Times.
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