Russia Turkey Relations and Black Sea Conflict

Turkey has repeatedly called for a Russian-Ukrainian moratorium on

attacks on ships in the Black Sea. This week, Sergey Lavrov called

attempts to revive the Black Sea Initiative through such a moratorium

unacceptable and unrealistic. And what is the Kremlin’s position on this?

And if attacks on ships continue, could this not

negatively affect Russia-Turkey relations?

No, it cannot, uh, Russia in this case.

First of all, Russia was not the initiator.

You know, I want to remind you of the president’s statement,

Putin said that we did not carry out strikes, and only after

that,

when the Ukrainians began striking our civilian infrastructure

facilities, our economic facilities, then they

opened Pandora’s box. Those were President Putin’s words.

Now Pandora's box has been opened. A huge number

of commercial vessels are used to transport

weapons, ammunition, fuel for

the purposes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and so on and so forth.

These vessels are being destroyed and will continue to be destroyed.