Ukraine, Zelensky today with Erdogan in Istanbul

The trip also comes four days before the start of the annual NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12, during which the leaders of the Atlantic Alliance hope to convince Turkey to lift its veto on Sweden's membership. Today the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, on the eve of the approach of a crucial NATO summit. "We need honesty in our relations" with the Atlantic Alliance, Zelensky said. It's time to demonstrate "the courage and strength of this alliance," he added.

During this first visit to Turkey by the Ukrainian head of state since February 2022, Zelensky and Erdogan will discuss in particular the agreement on Ukrainian wheat exports reached in July 2022 under the aegis of the UN and Turkey, which Russia does not see "no reason" to extend when it expires on July 17. Moscow has been complaining for several months about the obstacles to another agreement - bilateral - signed last July with the UN on exports of fertilizers.