Vladimir Zelensky. File photoMOSCOW, May 2 Shamil Tayyar, a former member of the Turkish parliament from the ruling Justice and Development Party, reacted sharply to Vladimir Zelensky's remarks about Russian tourists in Turkey. Earlier, Zelensky said in an interview with Greek public television ERT that he believes unacceptable on the part of Turkey to accept tourists from Russia. According to Zelensky, «these are double standards» and «injustice». on his Twitter, Zelensky was «offended by Turkey» because of the Russians on vacation. In his opinion, during an interview with the Greek channel, Zelensky «was talking nonsense.» «Stupid comedian!» — summed up the ex-parliamentarian. Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24th. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass.
Russian-Ukrainian consultations began in late February: delegations held two face-to-face meetings in Belarus, after which it was decided to continue them on a daily basis via video conferencing. At the end of March, the delegations held another round of talks in Istanbul.