Turkey has evacuated 13,719 citizens from Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's invasion of its neighbor, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday.
Stating on Twitter that another 125 citizens were leaving the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Kremenchuk on Thursday, Çavuşoğlu wished all the best for those en route.
Since Russia began its war against Ukraine on Feb. 24, it has drawn international condemnation. The invasion has led to financial sanctions on Moscow and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.
At least 549 civilians have been killed and 957 others injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to United Nations figures. But the international body has maintained that conditions on the ground have made it "difficult to verify" the true number of civilian casualties.
More than 2.3 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Maintaining its neutral and balanced stance, Turkey continues its diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict, urging all sides to exercise restraint. While Ankara has opposed international sanctions designed to isolate Moscow, it also closed its straits to prevent some Russian vessels from crossing the Turkish Straits.
As part of diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict, Turkey also had gathered Thursday the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine in its resort town of Antalya. Following two weeks of the war, the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine had held their first face-to-face talks, which Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba said made "no progress" on achieving a cease-fire to the fighting that has caused 2.2 million refugees to flee across Ukraine's borders. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow wanted to continue negotiations with Kyiv after the much-anticipated trilateral meeting.
NATO ally Turkey borders Ukraine and Russia on 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 host peace talks, underlining its support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Having recently called 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.