The Kremlin is seeking an explanation from Turkey regarding the latter’s recent decision to allow five Ukrainian Azov Battalion commanders to return to Kyiv in an apparent breach of an earlier prisoner-swap agreement.
“The return of the Azov leaders violates an existing agreement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on July 10.
“We will discuss this issue with Turkey,” he added. “We’ve already started talks on this issue.”
On July 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Istanbul, where he met with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a hall at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 24, 2016. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
It was Mr. Zelenskyy’s first trip to Turkey since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. …