Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he discussed ways to end the Ukraine war with Russia's Vladimir Putin during talks in China and with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy by phone, but that the sides were “not yet ready” for a leaders' meeting.

Erdogan spoke to reporters aboard his plane returning from China, where he met Putin and then said he called Zelenskiy. He said talks in recent months between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul showed the path to peace remains open.

Turkey favours “raising the level of negotiations gradually” to turn hopes for peace into concrete results, he said, adding that any initiative would ultimately need to be handled at the leaders’ level, though conditions were not yet in place.

NATO member Turkey has kept channels open with both Moscow and Kyiv since Russia’s 2022 invasion and has sought to mediate between them.