Europe should help Ukraine make a difficult decision on territories – Turkish Foreign Ministry

Turkey has called on Ukraine to agree to territorial losses for the sake of establishing peace.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said this in an interview with CNN Türk.

According to him, “Europe must help Ukraine in making certain difficult decisions.”

“Indeed, some choices, some decisions are very difficult for Ukraine. But in order to prevent more serious losses — that is, for the greater good — it is necessary to get rid of an evil here, meaning something bad… In other words, a choice has to be made. I know this is difficult for them. The issue of territory is especially incredibly difficult. God willing, no one will have to face this,” Fidan said.

He added that the questions of territory and security guarantees remain the most difficult ones. Fidan noted that Turkey continues to actively facilitate negotiations between the parties to the conflict, and that Istanbul is ready once again to host negotiation rounds, as it did in the summer. In his view, the progress made then—especially on prisoner exchanges and humanitarian issues—created the basis for the current talks.

“This also prepared the ground for today’s negotiations. We are ready to play this positive role. Look, the Black Sea has now become a battlefield. The war has spread to the Black Sea. Commercial vessels, tankers are now being attacked in the Black Sea. That is, if the war continues, it will spread to other regions of Europe as well,” the Turkish minister said.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump once again accused his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of being unwilling to make peace.