Two days after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Ukraine on May 29-30, at the invitation of his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha, diplomatic sources said.
Fidan is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and to hold bilateral meetings with high-level officials, including Sybiha, as well as the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office Andriy Yermak and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation in direct talks between Ukraine and Russia held in Istanbul on May 16, 2025, the sources added. During the meetings, the Turkish foreign minister is expected to discuss steps that can be taken to develop bilateral relations, notably on trade, energy, defense and security, as part of the cooperation established based on the strategic partnership between Ankara and Kyiv. Fidan will also reiterate Türkiye’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.
He will also highlight the increasingly serious negative impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, emphasizing the necessity of ending the war through diplomacy and the need to ensure a just and sustainable peace. To this end, Fidan is expected to express Türkiye’s readiness to do its part, as it has done so far, and to host subsequent talks between Kyiv and Moscow in this regard. He will voice Ankara’s readiness to also play a role in the reconstruction of Ukraine and underscore the importance of ensuring navigation safety in the Black Sea.
Besides the bilateral ties, the meetings during the visit will also discuss regional and global issues. The Turkish foreign minister is also expected to meet with Crimean Tatar and Gagauz Turk compatriots, notably Crimean Tatar national leader and member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Mustafa Kırımoğlu, and president of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, Refat Chubarov.
Visits at the foreign minister level between Türkiye and Ukraine have continued without losing momentum. Fidan paid his last bilateral visit to Ukraine on Aug. 25, 2023. Sybiha, for his part, paid his last bilateral visit to Türkiye on Oct. 21-22, 2024. Sybiha also attended the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, which was held on April 11-13, 2025, in Türkiye’s southwestern province of Antalya. On May 14, Fidan and Sybiha met in Antalya on the sidelines of an informal NATO foreign ministers meeting. Besides the foreign minister level, there has recently been a significant increase in official visits from Ukraine to Türkiye at all levels. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visited Türkiye on March 8, 2024, as well as on Feb. 17-18 and May 15-16 this year. In addition, Ukrainian Parliament Speaker (Verkhovna Rada) Ruslan Stefanchuk visited Türkiye on May 13-15, 2024, Defense Minister Umerov on May 14, 2024, and head of the Presidential Office Yermak, accompanied by Umerov, on June 28, 2024. Besides the high-level visits, the trade volume between the two countries was recorded as $6.2 billion in 2024 despite the adverse effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Answering a question about the Istanbul talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month, Fidan said on Tuesday that Ankara wanted to host another round. The first round of talks on May 16, which was closely watched by the world, failed to convince the sides to find a lasting solution to their conflict, but ensured a massive exchange of prisoners, which was completed over the weekend. “We hope the Russia-Ukraine talks rapidly evolve into a cease-fire and a permanent peace,” Fidan said in a joint news conference with Lavrov in Moscow.
Be First to Comment