Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a “compromise will soon be found” between Ukraine and Russia, which he believes could pave the way for peace. He stressed that Ankara is ready to continue acting as a mediator and “do everything possible” to stop the war. He said this while speaking at the TRT World Forum 2025 in Istanbul.
Erdogan recalled that Turkey has taken on the role of mediator since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and has repeatedly brought the Ukrainian and Russian delegations together. According to the Turkish president, he discussed the ceasefire issue separately with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, and "reaffirmed his determination to provide all necessary support to achieve a ceasefire and further establish a stable peace.".
"I hope that a compromise will soon be found between the parties that will allow the two neighboring peoples to live side by side in peace again," Erdogan said.
His statement came against the backdrop of Moscow's alleged readiness to return to negotiations with Ukraine. The Russian side is talking about continuing the dialogue "in the Istanbul format" - that is, with the mediation of Turkey. This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin, claiming that "all conditions for negotiations are in place", but hinting that Kyiv is not demonstrating political will.
Ukraine and Russia have already held a series of direct contacts in Istanbul in 2025 — in May, June, and July, among others. At these meetings, the parties agreed, among other things, on large-scale prisoner exchanges: the first round in May resulted in an agreement on a “1,000-for-1,000” exchange, the largest exchange during a full-scale war. The return of the bodies of the dead and an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure were also discussed.
The Ukrainian side put on the table the demand for an immediate ceasefire, "silence" along the entire front line, and a halt to attacks on energy and residential facilities. In the plan that Kyiv presented during the Istanbul contacts and that was seen by international media, the first point was a complete ceasefire for at least 30 days, followed by the exchange of all prisoners and the return of illegally deported Ukrainian children.
Moscow did not agree to these conditions. Public signals from the Russian side indicated that the Kremlin was not ready for a fixed ceasefire without prior political concessions from Ukraine, and key Russian figures explicitly stated that Russia's goal was not compromise but victory, with demands for territorial concessions and limitations on Ukraine's defense capabilities.
That is, the real picture looks like this: Turkey publicly emphasizes its readiness to be a platform for agreements and calls peace achievable "in the near future", Russia speaks of its readiness for dialogue, but puts forward a maximum of political demands, and Ukraine publicly does not refuse negotiations as a tool, but insists that any "compromise" should begin with a ceasefire and cessation of strikes, and not with concessions on issues of sovereignty.
Against this background, Erdogan's words that "a compromise will be found soon" sound like a political signal: Ankara wants to continue to remain a key mediator and demonstrate that it is Turkey that has the channels of communication with both Kyiv and Moscow.
