Zelensky and Putin to visit Turkey separately after Erdogan's inauguration
The presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, will visit the recently re-elected Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his inauguration, reported the newspaper Hürriyet, citing its sources.
According to the newspaper, there will be a large number of foreign leaders at Erdogan's inauguration, but Putin will make a "separate private visit", and Zelensky will visit Turkey shortly after.
"During these visits, which Putin and Zelensky will hold one after another, the course of the war and the grain corridor will be discussed," the newspaper reports, citing its sources.
The exact date of Erdogan's inauguration has not yet been announced. According to Hürriyet, the event will take place on June 3 or 4. After that, a gala dinner will be held for foreign leaders at the presidential compound .
According to the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, Ankara did not send Putin an invitation to the event. The Kremlin spokesman explained this by the fact that Turkey does not usually invite the heads of other countries to inaugarations. At the same time, Peskov stressed that a personal meeting between Putin and Erdogan "in some perspective will also take place," but "so far there are no estimates as to when."
According to the Russian news agency Interfax, at the inauguration ceremony for Erdogan, Russia will be represented by the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin.
The presidential elections in Turkey were held in two rounds. Erdogan won with 4% more votes than his opponent, opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
In April, the Russian president, despite Erdogan's expectations, did not come to Turkey for the ceremony of opening the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which was designed, built, and will be maintained by Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom.
Prior to this, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine. Under this warrant, Putin can be arrested in one of the 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute. Turkey has not ratified this document and does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague.