(Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held calls on Saturday with his Turkish and Hungarian counterparts, the Russian foreign ministry said, hours after a summit between the U.S. and Russian presidents yielded no deal on ending the war in Ukraine.
President Donald Trump, who hosted President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for bilateral talks aimed at ending the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in early 2022, said that Kyiv should make a deal with Moscow because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”
The phone call between Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan took place at Turkey’s initiative, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
“The foreign ministers exchanged views on the outcomes of the high-level Russia–U.S. meeting held in Alaska on August 15,” the ministry said in its short statement.
Turkey has tried to keep diplomatic channels open to both sides during the war, acting as a NATO member, a partner for both Russia and Ukraine, and a potential mediator.
Lavrov also held a call with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, the Russian foreign ministry said, in which “the parties discussed issues related to the Ukrainian crisis in the context of the outcomes of the Russia–U.S. summit.”
Hungary has maintained close ties with Russia throughout the war, often opposing EU sanctions and continuing energy cooperation with Moscow, and drawing criticism from Western allies of Kyiv.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday after the Putin-Trump meeting that “the world is a safer place than it was yesterday,” while other European leaders reiterated in their joint statement that “it will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory.”
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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