Veronika Prokhorenko14:24, 07/09/233 min.3196

Five commanders from Azovstal returned to Ukraine yesterday. 

Previously, they were in Turkey under the personal patronage of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, as part of the exchange, promised not to return the defenders to Kyiv until the end of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation.

Former adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovich explained what the “gesture” of the return of the five commanders of Azovstal to Ukraine on the part of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan means.

As Russian blogger Mark Feygin noted, three versions of what happened are “walking” in society: Erdogan took such a step to humiliate Putin; it could be revenge on Moscow for refusing the grain deal, or, as a third option, Putin was simply mocked. 

In a joint broadcast with Feigin, Arestovich indicated that, most likely, Putin angered Erdogan with his behavior in relation to the grain deal, where Turkey agreed to become one of the guarantors of the agreement.

“The immediate reason is the Kremlin’s ‘tail twisting’ over the grain deal, which is extremely important for Turkey. They say that they generally demand to sign an agreement for three years in order to adhere to the grain deal…” Arestovich said. 

Turkey has never had sentiments towards Russia: they understand that Moscow is much more dependent on Ankara, and Erdogan, as the leader of the country, has “great” experience in dealing with Putin and is not afraid to pursue a tough policy against him, the former adviser to the head of the Presidential Office said.“Erdogan has a lot of experience in dealing with his “friend” Vladimir: when you want, I will open the bays, when you want, I will close it, when you want, I will shoot down the plane, when necessary, the Turkish special forces will throw a little heads, misbehaving in Syria, when necessary, we will directly fight , in Syria, in Libya, and so on,” Arestovich said.

He stressed that it was no coincidence that the “Azovites” returned on July 8 – the day of symbolic gestures for us (500 days since the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine – UNIAN). 

Relevant agreements were reached with Turkey in advance, but for Putin, it is not this gesture of humiliation by Erdogan that is painful, but his words that Ukraine is a worthy candidate for NATO. 

“He (Erdogan – UNIAN) said a very unpleasant phrase for the Kremlin that Ukraine is wholly worthy of being in NATO. But this thing is extremely painful … Erdogan is two heads higher than Putin, if not three – any Russian brethren This is understandable. This is a very important statement, Turkey’s attitude before the summit on Ukraine’s accession to NATO was still not clear – now it has been announced,” Arestovich said. 

(C)UNIAN 2023