Erdogan tells Zelensky Black Sea ship attacks are unacceptable, offers help to restart talks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul on Saturday that attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea could not be accepted "under any circumstances", and offered Turkey's help in restarting peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.

The two leaders met at the Dolmabahce presidential office on a working visit arranged at Erdogan's invitation, and then held a joint news conference. The meeting followed a week of attacks on shipping in the Black Sea and another large overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine.

What the leaders said

Erdogan argued that an agreement on safe navigation in the Black Sea could build momentum towards a wider settlement. "There can be no losers in a just peace," he said, according to AP. Turkey's state-aligned A News quoted him as saying that steps raising tension in the Black Sea "will not benefit anyone".

Zelensky, who had written on Telegram before the visit that "important negotiations" lay ahead, said: "Strong decisions are needed for there to be peace." He said the two had discussed "some ideas and proposals that can help", including negotiating formats that could involve Turkey and European countries, and possibly a meeting in Turkey, AP reported. Neither presidency had published a formal readout of the talks by early Sunday, India time.

The war this week

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 134 drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday, of which 105 were shot down or suppressed, with hits recorded at 20 locations, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a critical infrastructure facility in the capital was hit, and the regional administration in Dnipropetrovsk said one person was killed and more than 200,000 customers lost power. These figures come from Ukrainian officials and could not be independently verified. Russia says its strikes are aimed at military and energy-related targets.

The Black Sea has become a second front in the war at sea. On 29 October a Greek-owned container ship was struck by naval drones off Bulgaria; gCaptain reported that its crew were safe and ashore. Ukraine and Russia have each accused the other of targeting merchant shipping.

On Friday the US State Department approved the possible sale to Ukraine of 500 PAC-3 MSE interceptor missiles for the Patriot air-defence system, at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion. The department said in its notice that the purchase would be paid for by Canada, Germany and Norway and by Ukrainian funds backed by an EU loan, and that "no U.S. funds are involved in this sale". The Kyiv Post reported that deliveries may not be completed until after 2030.

Background

Turkey, which controls access to the Black Sea through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, hosted the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in 2022 and brokered, with the UN, the 2022 grain corridor that let Ukrainian food exports resume. It has kept working relations with both Moscow and Kyiv.

The United States has hosted trilateral talks with Russia and Ukraine this year, including a round in October that the US described as productive, Al Jazeera reported. Kyiv hopes another round can take place between 6 and 10 November, with Abu Dhabi and Switzerland under consideration as venues, the Kyiv Post reported. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov has said Moscow could resume talks after Russia's National Unity Day holiday on 4 November.

Why it matters for India

India buys a large share of its crude oil from Russia and imports most of its sunflower oil from the Black Sea region, so shipping disruption there feeds into fuel and cooking-oil prices at home. Thousands of Indian seafarers also work on vessels that trade through the area. India has called for an end to the war through "dialogue and diplomacy" and has kept channels open to both Moscow and Kyiv; any revival of negotiations would ease pressure on New Delhi over its oil purchases from Russia.

What happens next

Zelensky was due to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul after the talks. The next test is whether the proposed trilateral talks take place in the week after 4 November, and whether Turkey's push for a Black Sea navigation deal gains backing from Moscow, which has not yet responded publicly to Saturday's meeting.