ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview aired on Monday evening that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to swap 200 hostages in the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the war seven months ago.
"We are now working to resolve the hostage crisis. We are taking steps and we have reached a certain point. On the other hand, we took the steps regarding the grain corridor," Erdogan said in an interview with PBS.
Erdogan has been walking a diplomatic tightrope since the outbreak of the war, balancing its neutrality between both sides, maintaining Ankara’s relations with both Moscow and Kyiv.
The Turkish President stressed that he has told his Russian Ukrainian counterparts that "there is no winner in a war that ends in the deaths of people."
Erdogan is currently in New York for the 77th session of the UN General Assembly and set to meet other top officials during his visits in the states.
"At this point, for example, an agreement has been reached on the exchange of 200 hostages. This is a good development. Because with these hostages, a very important step has been taken there,” Erdogan said.
During the interview, Erdogan also touched upon Sweden and Finland’s ongoing NATO bids, reiterating that Turkish support is conditional of the Nordic countries fighting what Ankara calls terrorism.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in June out of security concerns following the Ukraine war, but were met with opposition by Turkey over their alleged support of Kurdish armed groups which Ankara considers a threat to its national security.
The United Nations and Turkey brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine in July, allowing for the resumption of exporting Ukrainian grains and other foodstuffs for the first time since the start of the war.
Following the signing of the deal, the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) was launched in Istanbul with the purpose of monitoring the shipments through the Black Sea and facilitating the implementation of the agreement.
Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in February, leading to a global incline in food, oil, and petrol prices as exports from the neighboring countries diminished due to the war.
The resumption of the exportation of Ukrainian grain was widely welcomed as it is seen as a step to help alleviate the global food crisis that has plagued the world since Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops to Ukraine.
By Klawdia Martani
