Vasyl Bodnar, the Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey has said that Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President, has the leverage and power over Vladimir Putin to encourage him to implement “certain agreements” when speaking about possible negotiations with Ukraine to end the war.

"We can say that Erdogan influences Putin in a certain way and has levers of influence in order not to force, but to encourage him to implement certain agreements.”

Vasyl Bodnar said, adding that "none of the European leaders has achieved what Erdogan has achieved (the grain agreement specifically).”

"Therefore, those mediation or facilitation efforts and negotiations in specific areas, and grain, and perhaps some other attempts to find common ground – this is also thanks to active Turkish diplomacy.”

Vasyl Bodnar continued.

However, Vasyl Bodnar also stated that Turkey is and always will defend its own interests. He backed up the claim by stating that Turkey is also the only country it seems that isn’t using every excuse to help Ukraine but is also pushing Russia to peace talks.

"But in their understanding, the end of the war is the end of hostilities. We are telling the Turkish side that we need the withdrawal of Russian troops, and this is the main prerequisite for later political discussions or negotiations with the aggressor country.”

Vasyl Bodnar said.