The talks between the Presidents of the Russian Federation and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan, have been going on for five hours, at first the leaders talked face-to-face, then the delegation members joined them.
The main topic of the talks between the leaders of the two countries concerned the aggravation of the situation in Syrian Idlib. The meeting between Putin and Erdogan in the Kremlin began at 14.06 Moscow time. Before the start of negotiations, the President of the Russian Federation stated the need to “talk” the current situation with his Turkish counterpart so that nothing like this would happen again and the Russian-Turkish relations, which the parties hold dear, would not be destroyed. Erdogan expressed confidence that the outcome of the negotiations will ease the situation in Syrian Idlib.
The situation in Idlib escalated after the terrorists of the Khayyat Tahrir al-Sham* group (banned in the Russian Federation) launched a large-scale attack on the positions of the Syrian government forces on February 27. The Syrian army returned fire. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Turkish military, who should not have been there, was also shelled.
As a result, 36 Turkish soldiers died, more than 30 people were injured. Immediately after receiving information about the injured Turkish military, the Russian side took measures for a complete ceasefire by the Syrian troops, and a safe evacuation of the dead and wounded to Turkey was ensured. The Russian Defense Ministry emphasized that Russian aviation was not used in this area.