ANKARA — Turkey’s top diplomat Hakan Fidan dismissed on Friday Kyiv’s offers to ship Ukrainian grain without an agreement with Russia, saying any option that excludes Moscow would "likely endanger security."
Speaking at a joint presser with his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil, Fidan also said Turkey and the United Nations are on the same page on the issue.
“There are efforts on the Ukrainian side to bring alternative solutions. As Turkey, we frankly believe that Russia should be brought back to the table again. We believe any solutions other than that will be far fetched and will highly likely endanger security,” Fidan said.
His remarks came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tabled on Monday an alternative solution to ship foodstuff from his country to world markets via Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish waters in the Black Sea. Following the offer, Moscow designated northwest and southeast of the Black Sea as “temporarily dangerous” for shipping.
