ANKARA, March 13. /TASS/. Russia’s and Ukraine’s positions on certain issues have become somewhat closer in the course of the talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday.

"Serious talks between them continue. As a neutral country, Turkey trusts both sides. There are issues of status, either Ukraine’s membership in NATO, the policy of neutrality and so on. We see that their positions have become somewhat closer on certain issues," he said at a diplomatic forum in Antalya.

According to Cavusoglu, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during telephone talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he "doesn’t object against a meeting with [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky."

On March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Kuleba, on the sidelines of the forum in Antalya. After the talks, the Russian top diplomat noted that President Putin never refused from contacts but they should not be a goal in itself but a means to reach concrete agreements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, its goals were denazification and demilitarization of that country.

Following this step, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and several other countries announced sanctions against Russia individuals and legal entities.