Ukraine’s president travelled to Istanbul on Saturday with shipping safety at the top of his agenda, and he left with a promise from his host. Volodymyr Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they would work together on a grain corridor across the Black Sea, timing their meeting to coincide with International Black Sea Day.
The two men met at Erdogan’s Dolmabahce office after a formal welcome ceremony. Afterwards Zelensky said the aim was a route that keeps running and actually works, rather than one that exists only on paper. He also floated a broader idea: a three-way format hosted by Turkey that would bring Europe to the table, arguing that Moscow needed to hear from every direction that peace was the only option left.
Erdogan used the joint press conference to rebuke both sides. Strikes on civilian vessels were something Turkey “cannot accept”, he said, no matter who launched them or how they were justified. Ankara has grown increasingly uneasy as Russian and Ukrainian forces trade blows at sea; several ships flying the Turkish flag have been caught up in incidents, and in August Turkey proposed a pause on attacks against shipping. Kyiv signalled it could live with that. The Kremlin, so far, has not.
There is interest in Washington too. Speaking in Atlanta after a G20 meeting of foreign ministers, America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio said backing was growing for a ceasefire limited to the Black Sea, and that the US was studying proposals from Turkey and India. Such a deal “doesn’t solve the war”, Rubio said, but it would tackle one distinct piece of it.
Ankara has played this role before: it helped set up the first grain deal back in 2022, and in 2025 it was the venue for several rounds of direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. Trade was on the agenda as well: a free trade pact between the two countries has now taken effect, and Zelensky said Turkish suppliers would step up deliveries of generators and power equipment within days.
