IRIA News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Istanbul, Turkiye, to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The talks in Istanbul addressed Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO alliance. Zelensky returned home with five commanders of Ukraine’s former garrison in Mariupol.

As an attempt to secure more weapons, support, and a possible fast-track membership into the alliance, the Ukrainian President is visiting NATO member European countries ahead of the alliance’s annual summit in Lithuania this week. Zelenskyy arrived in Istanbul to meet with Erdogan on his first trip to Turkey since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022.

The two leaders held a bilateral meeting and joint a press conference in Istanbul. “Without a doubt, Ukraine deserves to be in NATO,” Erdogan said during the joint press conference. Zelensky said he was “happy to hear” that Turkey supports Ukraine’s bid to join during a joint press conference.

NATO has an open-door policy for any country if it expresses interest to join the alliance if it is willing to uphold the principles of the treaty. Joining NATO requires unanimous approval from all existing member states. All the NATO member states support Ukraine in its war against Russia. Some allies, especially those who are in Eastern Europe, support Kyiv’s accession into the alliance, while the Western European and North American NATO member states do not support Ukraine’s bid to join NATO fearing the escalation in the ongoing conflict.

The talks between Turkish and Ukrainian leaders also focused on the expiring deal for Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea. Ankara played an important role as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv to broker the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grains from the Black Sea despite the Russian blockade. With Ukraine’s counteroffensive in actions and the duration of the grain deal coming to an end, the extension of the deal faces an uncertain future.

Erdogan told Zelenskyy that Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to visit Turkey in August. He said that he would try to extend the grain deal for longer intervals. “Our hope is that it will be extended at least once every three months, not every two months,” he said. “We will make an effort in this regard and try to increase the duration of it.”

Release of Ukrainian commanders

After concluding his trip to Turkey, the Ukrainian President returned home with five former Azov commanders who had fought in the battle over Mariupol. Without providing many details about the release of the Ukrainian commanders, Zelenskyy posted a picture on social media along with the released soldiers posing inside a private jet saying that “Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, and Denys Shleha” will finally be with their relatives. 

“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” Zelenskyy said. The five commanders, celebrated as heroes in Ukraine, led last year’s defense of the southern port of Mariupol, the biggest city Russia has captured during the invasion.

In May 2022, the five commanders along with 2500 Ukrainian servicemen were taken captive after they surrendered to the Russian forces after a two-month-long battle at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

In a prisoner swap deal brokered by Turkey, Ukraine managed to get back 215 of its servicemen while Russia got 55 of its own soldiers, officers, and pilots, as well as Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, once considered a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The commanders had been in Turkey since the prisoner swap deal.

Moscow’s reaction

Moscow reacted to the release of the Ukrainian commanders claiming that Turkey has violated the terms of the prisoner swap deal. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had not been informed about the release of the commanders and that Turkey had promised to keep the former prisoners on its home soil.

“The return of the leaders of the Azovites from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing more than a direct violation of the terms of the existing agreements. Moreover, in this case, the terms were violated by both the Ukrainian side and the Turkish side.” Peskov said. He went on to claim that NATO pressured Turkey into violating the agreement to demonstrate solidarity with the alliance.

Zelenskyy’s trip to the Czech Republic and Bulgaria

Before arriving the Istanbul, the Ukrainian President also visited Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to bolster Kyiv’s bid to join NATO. During his visit to Prague Zelenskyy said that “without long-range weapons, it is not only difficult to carry out offensive missions but also, to be honest, defensive operations.” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said he would send combat helicopters to Ukraine and train U.S.-made F-16 fighter pilots.  

While in Sofia, Zelenskyy held talks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov and President Rumen Radev. The Bulgarian administration has been accused of opposing providing Ukraine with large-scale defense assistance and having a pro-Moscow stance. However, Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev announced that his country would send a new military aid package to Ukraine.