ANKARA, April 1. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hopeful in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday that peace will come to Ukraine, due to the constructive course of the meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul, the Turkish presidential office said in a statement.

"At the talks, they touched upon the meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating delegations in Istanbul. President Erdogan said that the positive and constructive meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul inspires hope for peace," the statement said.

On Tuesday, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations held in-person talks in Turkey’s Istanbul. After the meeting, Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation at the talks, said that Moscow had received from Kiev its written proposals for a future bilateral agreement. He added that after studying the initiatives, Russia would put forward its own proposals. In addition, in his words, Moscow is taking "two steps towards" Kiev and suggests that a meeting between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky be held earlier than planned, or simultaneously with the initialing of the peace treaty by the two foreign ministers. At the same time, the Russian military will scale down its activities outside Kiev and Chernigov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 launched a special military operation in Ukraine following a request for help from the leaders of two Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans for an occupation of Ukrainian territories, its sole aim being the country’s demilitarization and denazification.