Day 163 Roundup: Turkey's Erdoğan Meets Putin in Russia; Zelenskyy Condemns Amnesty

    Photo: Reuters [via Al Jazeera]

    The Facts

    • On the back of a successful deal to resume the exports of Ukrainian grain, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Russian resort of Sochi on Friday. The pair were expected to discuss bilateral ties and Ukraine, as well as the conflict in Syria.

    • After the first shipment of Ukrainian grain left the port of Odesa on Mon., three more ships departed on Fri., Turkey's defense ministry confirmed. Two traveled from Chornomorsk and one from Odesa. They will be inspected at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul before setting off towards destinations in Turkey, Ireland and Britain.


    The Spin

    Pro-establishment narrative

    As the war shifts to the strategically important Donbas region of Donetsk, the US and its allies need to continue to do everything in their power to arm Ukraine with all the weapons they need. Doing so is the only way to push Putin's forces back as was done in Kyiv.

    Pro-Russia narrative

    As stated by Putin, the whole purpose of the war was never to invade Kyiv, but to liberate the ethnically Russian people of Donetsk and Luhansk, who have been subjected to systematic killing by Ukrainian forces for not recognizing the 2014 coup in Kyiv.

    Nerd narrative

    There is a 12% chance that Ukraine will officially recognize a former Ukrainian territory as independent before 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.


    Public figures in this story


    Establishment split

    CRITICAL

    PRO

    More neutral establishment stance articles

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