ANKARA, February 20. /TASS/. Turkish officials maintain contacts with Russian counterparts and continue preparations for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Sunday.

"Our preparations for a visit to Turkey by Mr. Putin continue. We are in contacts with our Russian colleagues on this matter," the Star newspaper quoted him as saying.

The Turkish president said on January 26 that he had invited Putin to visit his country. He also said he was ready to organize Putin’s meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. On February 16, Erdogan said he wanted to have a telephone conversation with Putin to learn about what he thinks about the idea of a trilateral top-level meeting in Turkey.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Moscow and Ankara had agreed to organize the Russian president visit but had not yet agreed the concrete date. He said the visit would be made when the two presidents’ schedules allowed. He also said that Putin’s possible meeting with Zelensky in Turkey had not been looked at.