ANKARA, January 23. /TASS/. The parties to the conflict in Ukraine have made visible progress toward peace as part of discussions of relevant documents, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, adding that the most difficult issues are yet to be agreed upon.
"As concerns documents, we are now much closer to peace. All the problems have been more or less resolved. One issue remains. It seems that the issue of territories remains unresolved. This is the issue of Donbas," he told the NTV television channel.
According to Fidan, "both sides have proposals" on this matter. "I’d rather not be going into details because this is a very delicate issue. But there are some scenarios, such as disarmaments, turning Donbass into a joint economic zone, and so on," he said.
He noted that progress can be reached "is encouraging and stimulating steps are made in other areas." "Frankly speaking, I would like the Americans to be more creative. This is what I was saying in Davos when I spoke briefly with [US presidential envoy] Steve Witkoff and [entrepreneur] Jared Kushner before their visit to Moscow. More creativity is needed. The situation is already close to this [peaceful settlement], the conflict must be ended," Fidan stressed.
He recalled that Ankara "communicates with all parties to the conflict." "We have an understanding of the sides’ positions. We hope they will be able to find a solution. We hope for the soonest settlement," the top Turkish diplomat added.