ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday that Turkey opposed any decision targeting Ukraine’s territorial integrity, after Russia said it was recognising two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.
The move by Russian President Vladimir Putin has prompted the United States and European Union to mull potential sanctions against Russia. Turkey, which has a maritime border to Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, opposes sanctions in principle.
In a statement, the Turkish presidency said Erdogan repeated that Turkey found Russia’s decision unacceptable during the call with Zelenskiy and called “for all of the resources of diplomacy to be used in the international arena” to resolve the crisis.
It did not say whether Erdogan had discussed sanctions with Zelenskiy on the call.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler)
