Turkey is not picking a side in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday in an interview on broadcaster NTV.
President Tayyip Erdogan called at the weekend for an end to “worrying” developments in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov subsequently said Turkey and other nations should not feed “belligerent sentiment” in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of EU members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania arrived in Ukraine on Thursday morning to show solidarity with the country in the face of a Russian military buildup, an Estonian ministry spokeswoman said.
“The mission of the joint visit is to express strong support to Ukraine and reconfirm support for its territorial integrity and sovereignty,” spokeswoman Aari Lemmik told Reuters.
“In recent weeks we have seen an unfortunate spike of violence and intensity of the armed confrontation in Donbass, and we are really worried about the buildup of Russian troops that have been deployed along the border of Ukraine and the occupied territories”, she said.
Main Photo: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DI MEO
