ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan said U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western nations had not helped to solve the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, and there were no European leaders fit to resolve it, Turkish media cited him as saying on Friday.
The comments come after Erdogan met Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Thursday and repeated an offer for Turkey to mediate the crisis with Moscow, which Kyiv welcomed. He also offered to host a meeting of the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
Speaking to reporters on his return flight, Erdogan was quoted as saying he “greatly values” a planned visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkey, a NATO member.
Washington said on Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia has formed a plan to use a fabricated video as a pretext for an invasion, amid concerns over Russia’s buildup of more than 100,000 troops near Ukrainian borders.
Moscow denies planning an invasion and has demanded guarantees from NATO and the United States that Ukraine will never join the alliance.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
