Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in the southern Turkish province of Antalya late Wednesday ahead of a face-to-face meeting set with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, the first high-level contact between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia invaded its neighbor two weeks ago, AzVision.az reports citing the Turkish media.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has pushed for Turkey to play a mediation role, has expressed hope the talks can avert tragedy and even help arrange a cease-fire.
Analysts, however, doubt that a breakthrough will be made at the meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba.
Senior Ukrainian officials, including the defense minister, have held a sequence of meetings with a Russian delegation in Belarus largely devoted to humanitarian issues, but Moscow has not sent any ministers to the talks.
Lavrov and Kuleba will be joined at the meeting Thursday morning by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu, with NATO member Turkey keen to maintain strong relations with both sides despite the conflict.
Kuleba confirmed in a video on Facebook he was preparing to meet Lavrov on Thursday, warning that his expectations were "limited."
He said the success of the talks would depend on "what instructions and directives Lavrov is under" from the Kremlin at the discussions.
"I am not pinning any great hopes on them but we will try and get the most out of" the talks with effective preparation, he said.
