ANKARA, February 9. /TASS/. Turkey positively assesses signals about prospects for settling the Ukrainian crisis coming from the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"Of course, we have not lost a hope for peace and don’t want to lose it. Recently, we have heard from [Vladimir] Zelensky that he is ready for talks if there is relevant proposal. We hail the signals from [US President Donald] Trump and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin on this matter. Turkey is ready to do everything it can in this context," he told journalists ahead of his Asian tour, where he plans to visit Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

"Turkey is a country that can communicate unbiasedly with the leaders" of the countries involved in the conflict and engages in the "diplomacy of peace," the Turkish leader said, adding that Turkey wants to stop the bloodshed. "Let them [the leaders of the parties to the conflict] simply meet and hold talks. We are not losing hope," he noted.

Russia’s authorities have repeatedly stated their readiness to negotiate the end to the conflict in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the main obstacles for talks are Zelensky’s ban on communication with Putin and Ukraine’s initiatives that reveal Kiev’s utter misunderstanding of the situation on the ground.

Meanwhile, President Putin has pointed put more than once that Zelensky is no longer a legitimate leader and it is important to know who in Kiev can sign legally binding documents. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov underscored that talks with Ukraine are possible but their outcome is to be endorsed by legitimate authorities.