Turkey Has Stepped Up Efforts To Negotiate A Permanent Ceasefire In Ukraine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey.

Turkey  has stepped up efforts to negotiate a permanent ceasefire and eventual deal between Russia and Ukraine following successful grain and prisoner swap deals. But Ankara's balancing act has its limits, experts say. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held phone calls with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts on Thursday. He told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ankara  was ready in to take on a mediating and moderating role in order to secure  peace between Russia and Ukraine," read a reading from Erdogan's office.

Turkish leader told Vladimir Putin that peace efforts in the ongoing conflict must be backed by a unilateral ceasefire and a "vision for a just solution," the Turkish presidency said. 

Soner Cagaptay, a political scientist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Xinhua that Ankara hopes to broker and host final peace talks after two rounds of preliminary talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul and the  resort city of Antalya in southern Turkey. 

shortly  after the conflict. Ankara is one of the few capitals that has maintained communication links with both Moscow and Kyiv," said Cagaptay.