Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba that Turkey welcomed the progress made with Russia on setting up humanitarian corridors for civilians fleeing the war, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said late Thursday.
Çavuşoğlu spoke over the phone with Kuleba and discussed the latest situation in Ukraine, diplomatic sources said.
Noting that the corridors will not only allow evacuation of Turkish citizens, the minister said it will also facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to these regions.
Late on Thursday, Russia and Ukraine announced they had reached an understanding to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and for food and medicine deliveries.
Ukraine's lead negotiator Mikhail Podolyak said at a news conference following the second round of negotiations in the Belarusian region of Brest that there is "a possibility of a temporary cease-fire for a period of evacuation in regions where it takes place."
The total number of Turkish citizens evacuated from Ukraine has reached 9,653, Çavuşoğlu also said Thursday.
In a Twitter post, the minister said that 406 more citizens have been evacuated Thursday.
Çavuşoğlu said 100 of the citizens are coming to Turkey from Kyiv via train, while the remaining 306 arrived by bus from the cities of Odessa, Lviv, Zhytomyr and Khmelnytskyi.
Russia's war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the European Union, United States and the United Kingdom, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.
According to United Nations figures, 227 civilians have been killed and 525 injured in Ukraine since the start of the war. Ukrainian authorities, however, put the death toll at over 2,000.
More than 1 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency said.
While the war between Russia and Ukraine enters its second week, Turkey tries to keep its neutral and balanced position by keeping communication with all sides open.
Maintaining its neutral and balanced stance, Turkey continues its diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict, urging restraint for all sides. While Ankara has opposed international sanctions aiming to isolate Moscow, it also closed the Bosporus and Dardanelles under a 1936 pact, allowing it to curb some Russian vessels from crossing the Turkish Straits.
NATO ally Turkey borders Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and has good ties with both. Since the beginning of the conflict, Ankara has offered to mediate between the two sides and offered to host peace talks, also underlining its support to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. While recently calling Russia’s invasion an unacceptable violation of international law, Turkey has carefully formulated its rhetoric not to offend Moscow, with which it has close energy, defense and tourism ties.
