Russian President Vladimir Putin is still planning to visit Turkey in February, the first time he has entered a NATO member state since launching his war on Ukraine in February 2022.

“Yes a visit is being organized,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser in the Kremlin Yuri Ushakov told the news agency Interfax on Monday.

A date has not yet been announced.

The war in Ukraine will be a major topic of the talks, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is likely to take part in.

Putin has been named a war crimes suspect by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and has largely avoided travelling abroad since the start of the war.

The 71-year-old faces a presidential election in March which he is almost certain of winning, but political commentators say he wants to show he can still be a statesman on the world stage.

Although there is an international arrest warrant out for him, there is no indication Turkey would arrest him.