Putin thanks Erdogan for organizing Moscow-Kiev talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for helping arrange the recent direct talks between Moscow and Kiev, the Kremlin announced on Monday following a phone call between the two leaders.
Earlier this month, Russian and Ukrainian representatives held a second round of direct negotiations in Istanbul. After the meeting, the two sides announced having agreed to carry out the exchange of prisoners of war. Russia also offered to return the remains of fallen Ukrainian soldiers as a humanitarian gesture. The sides also exchanged draft memorandums outlining their respective visions of a roadmap toward a peace deal.
During Monday's phone call with Erdogan, Putin 'expressed gratitude to the Turkish side for helping facilitate the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations,' the official statement said.
The Russian leader also noted that Moscow 'strictly complies with the agreements' reached during the second Istanbul talks, which included the transfer of bodies and POW exchanges.
On Monday, Russia's Defense Ministry announced that Moscow had transferred 1,248 more bodies of Ukrainian servicemen and received the remains of 51 slain Russian soldiers in return.
After the exchange, Moscow's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, stated that Russia had completed the handover of the remains of 6,060 Ukrainian soldiers and thus had fulfilled its Istanbul promises.
The Russian Defense Ministry has subsequently announced that it is ready to transfer another 2,239 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.
During Moscow's initial attempt to return the Ukrainian remains over the previous weekend, Kiev's representatives failed to show up to the exchange point, claiming that they had not agreed on the date of the transfer and accusing Moscow of 'using humanitarian issues for information purposes.'
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded at the time by accusing Kiev of 'genocide against its own people' and claiming that Zelensky's government 'does not need its people, either dead or alive.'
Soon thereafter, Kiev began to accept the remains of its soldiers, which were handed over in several transfers over the past week.
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