Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not against direct negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, CNN reports.

“It’s been said that Zelensky is ready for this kind of meeting, and Putin is not against it in principle. Putin also mentioned this idea to President Erdoğan”, - he said.

Cavusoglu also added the face-to-face meeting between Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov - facilitated and held in Turkey earlier Thursday, and which resulted in no breakthroughs - was at least a start.

“No one should expect miracles with one meeting, but a ministerial level meeting is an important start”, - the Turkish foreign minister said.