ISTANBUL, July 8. /TASS/. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expects his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to visit Turkey in August, Erdogan said on Saturday.

"Yesterday we met with [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky in Istanbul. I hope to meet with Putin in August," Erdogan said at a rally in the northeastern city of Bayburt, which was broadcast by the TRT television channel.

After his talks with Zelensky, Erdogan also announced that Putin could pay a visit to Turkey.

When asked if such a presidential visit was being prepared, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Saturday that meetings of the Russian and Turkish leaders are possible, but no exact dates have been fixed as of yet.

According to Erdogan, since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Turkey has pursued a balanced policy, maintaining dialogue with both Moscow and Kiev and taking measures to minimize the impact of the conflict on its economy.

"Since the very beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, we took a fair and balanced stand. We did not let the so-called war lobby use our opposition to throw us into the fire," the Turkish president said.

Erdogan and Zelensky held talks in Istanbul on Friday. Among the key issues were the coordination of the two countries’ stances ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, security guarantees for Ukraine, the grain deal, and defense cooperation between enterprises.

The Kremlin said earlier that it would closely follow the outcome of the Istanbul talks, and did not rule out a meeting of Putin and Erdogan.