Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. File photoANKARA, June 30Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he is in constant contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin to resolve the situation in Ukraine. «I am in constant contact with Vladimir Putin. It is necessary to take all diplomatic efforts for an early ceasefire,» Erdogan said at a press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Madrid. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. 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. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
