Turkey wants to see „localized cessations of the conflict „in Ukraine because it cannot hope for a more comprehensive peace deal at this stage, Ibrahim Kalin, a close adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday. Neither Russia nor Ukraine „is in a position to win militarily”, Kalin estimated, declaring himself convinced that „in the end, they will have to negotiate to reach an acceptable solution” for both sides. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, on February 24, Turkey, which maintains good relations with both countries, offered to broker the end of the war. It mediated the agreement signed last summer on Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea and the Bosphorus and the facilitation of prisoner of war exchanges. In another move, Great Britain has announced that it will send a dozen tanks to Ukraine. Kyiv hopes that the US, France and Germany will follow the British example. Russian diplomats said on Saturday that sending British tanks to Ukraine, as announced by London, will only ‘intensify’ the fighting and it’s very unlikely to change the situation on the front line.
