Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has developed a plan to resolve the military conflict in Ukraine and is going to present it at the G20 leaders’ meeting to be held in Brazil on November 19-20, informed sources told Bloomberg. According to them, Erdogan considers it necessary to “freeze” military actions and create a demilitarized zone in the eastern part of Donbass, deploying international troops there “as an additional guarantee.”
The Turkish leader’s plan also assumes that the West will postpone discussion of Ukraine’s accession to NATO for at least 10 years as a concession to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Kyiv will have to receive Western weapons as compensation for this. Bloomberg’s interlocutors among Turkish officials acknowledged that it would be difficult for Ukraine to accept Erdogan’s peace plan, but they believe it is the most realistic approach. According to them, it is necessary to postpone discussing the fate of the Russian-occupied territories in order to focus on ensuring a stable cease-fire.
Erdogan hopes to convince Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to take part in peace talks in Istanbul, as the Turkish president “has familiarized himself with intelligence indicating that Ukraine could lose much more territory in the next few months if the fighting does not stop,” Bloomberg sources said. According to the agency, Erdogan’s plan may be supported by some of Ukraine’s allies who fear that the country’s NATO membership would lead to a direct clash with Russia.
