Overview
- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Russia’s Sergei Lavrov that Türkiye is ready to host the next round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, according to Ankara’s official readout.
- Turkey said the discussion underscored risks from the prolonged war for regional states and the international order, with both sides addressing energy security concerns.
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry highlighted securing the Blue Stream and TurkStream gas pipelines and repeated its claim that Ukraine has tried to damage related infrastructure.
- Moscow last week said it foiled Ukrainian attacks on Gazprom-operated gas pumping stations that feed the TurkStream and Blue Stream routes to Europe.
- Context for the outreach includes President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remark that the United States proposed postponing planned trilateral talks, as well as a reported March 11 Florida meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump’s representatives and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.