Turkey's Erdoğan sees rising Russian losses, expects prolonged Ukraine conflict

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken about the difficult financial situation Ukraine found itself in during the war and the significant increase in Russian casualties recently, but he does not see anything that could stop this war in the short term.

In an interview with Fox News, when asked whether the war in Ukraine would end in the near future, he replied: "I don't really believe in it."

"This is not good news. And we - when we think about it like this, our hearts become heavy," Erdoğan added.

When asked how this war could end and whether, in his opinion, it is possible to conclude an agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and whether it is possible to end the war in the Gaza Strip in the same way, the Turkish president recalled that US President Donald Trump promised to end both wars, but they are still ongoing. "This means that when we start analyzing the problem, we have to pay a price. But if you look at the hostage exchange, it has been done," Erdoğan said.

At the same time, he noted that the Russian Federation and Ukraine are in a difficult situation because of the war. "Currently, as we know, the human losses of Ukraine and Russia, if you look at it, the human losses of Russia have increased, seriously increased. And if you look at it from a financial point of view, we see that Ukraine cannot compete with Russia economically," the Turkish president said.

At the same time, Erdoğan noted that Europe provides economic assistance to Ukraine, but "does not think that it will provide it forever." Now this support is not provided, and Ukraine is suffering from this. We hope that this support will continue. At the same time, I do not know how long the United States will provide this support. I cannot assess this," he added.

The Turkish president said that he has "very important relations with both Russia and Ukraine" and "never wants to distance himself from these countries."

"We have always adhered to the peace process with both Russia and Ukraine. We never wanted such a war to happen, but unfortunately this war ended with the deaths of millions of people. Russia suffered very serious losses. Ukraine also suffered very serious losses, both human and financial," Erdoğan said.

"Our relations with Vladimir Putin were good from the very beginning. These relations with Mr. Putin did not mean that we had bad relations with Mr. Zelenskyy. As with Zelenskyy, so with the previous presidents of Ukraine, we have always had good relations. And these relations, like our relations with Russia, our relations with Ukraine, were a model of good relations with countries. "That's what we have been developing," he added.

When asked how he thought NATO should respond to the incursions of Russian military aircraft and drones into the airspace of Poland, Estonia and other NATO member states, the Turkish president suggested "using the Turkish model."

"I believe that NATO should use the model that we apply to both Russia and Ukraine. In these countries, we have been working on a peace model, and I believe that it will be useful for them to use it," Erdoğan said.