Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday to discuss the situation in northern Syria, where Turkey has vowed to resume an offensive against Kurdish fighters.
Putin and Erdogan’s talks will focus on “normalising the situation” in northeast Syria, according to the Kremlin.
There has been relative calm in northeast Syria since Turkey agreed on Thursday to a 120-hour pause in hostilities to allow Kurdish-led fighters Ankara considers “terrorists” to withdraw from the border area.
The United States-brokered truce is set to expire at 19:00 GMT on Tuesday.
“The situation in the region is very severe,” Putin told Erdogan at the start of talks in the Russian city of Sochi, adding he hoped that the good rapport between Russia and Turkey “will let us find an answer to even the most difficult questions”.
