President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thoroughly discussed the issues of security and joint counteraction to the challenges in the Black Sea region.
"It is worth noting that the vision of Kyiv and Ankara coincide - both in terms of the threats themselves and in terms of ways to properly respond to these threats," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a joint statement with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Ninth meeting of the High-Level Strategic Council co-chaired by the Presidents of Ukraine and Turkey.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that Turkey's support in restoring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was very important for our country.
"I was happy to hear from the President about the continuation of such support and the invariability of Turkey's position in the future," he said.
The Ukrainian Head of State said that he had informed the Turkish side in detail about the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and in Crimea.
"We believe that the situation in eastern Ukraine should be resolved peacefully in the framework of international law in such a way as to preserve territorial integrity. The escalation we are witnessing must be stopped as soon as possible to reduce tension and resume the ceasefire in the framework of fulfilling the terms of the Minsk agreements,” the Turkish President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also told his Turkish counterpart about human rights violations on the Crimean peninsula and its ongoing militarization. He also thanked Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his willingness to join the Crimean Platform format.
"This will be a strong signal that Ukraine and its partners are determined to deoccupy the Ukrainian peninsula and protect the rights of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar people," said the President of Ukraine.
"Turkey supports the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We have reaffirmed our basic principle of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea. We have also announced our support for the Crimean Platform, which is aimed to unite the lands of Ukraine," said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
