Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the statement in an interview with Anadolu, according to Ukrinform.

According to Fidan, the Black Sea has become one of the areas where the war is actively spreading.

"Unfortunately, our warnings are coming true. One of the areas where the war has spread is the entire Black Sea. First, they were attacking military ports and military ships; now they are attacking all commercial ships indiscriminately," the foreign minister said.

He added that ships flying foreign flags and owned by Turkish crews, as well as those flying foreign flags and owned by foreign crews but employing Turkish crews, could also be targeted.

"We have prepared several measures on this issue, which we have presented to our president and are implementing," the minister said.

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Fidan explained that Turkey had called on Ukraine and Russia to "create a mechanism for declaring a moratorium" on attacks against vessels in the Black Sea.

"The Ukrainians already had a request for this. We also conveyed this to our Russian counterparts. We are waiting for a response on this matter," he said.

Regarding prospects for ending the war, the foreign minister acknowledged that the parties are reluctant to make concessions as long as they have the ability to continue military operations.

"But if neither side makes concessions, the war will continue to escalate – as we are witnessing – until it forces the parties to do so," Fidan warned.

In his opinion, after becoming mutually exhausted, the parties will conclude that they need to sit down at the negotiating table and make peace.

"They were unable to reach an agreement because of the territorial issue in the Donetsk region. The Russians couldn't seize a territory they claimed was 24-25 percent last year and 15 percent this year," the Turkish minister said.

Asked whether Russia could switch to the "last resort" at its disposal – apparently referring to nuclear weapons – Fidan suggested that this could happen if the war of annihilation continued to expand.

"When I discussed this with our counterparts during my visit to Russia, this issue came up, as if to say, 'because the public is now demanding something like this.' We also told this to the Westerners, and the Westerners are aware of it," he said.

Fidan stressed that such a situation poses a danger. Therefore, the international community must intervene to stop a war that is expanding geographically and in terms of its objectives and methods of warfare, and which could escalate to an even higher level.

He also noted that Ukrainians, Europeans, Russians and Americans perceive the war differently and assess its course in different ways. At the same time, he said there is still no shared understanding that "ending the war takes is above all else."

Fidan added that "some participants in the war" believe that ending it at the current stage could result in greater losses than continuing it, and therefore are not ready for peace.

Earlier reports said that Turkey was restricting the movement of commercial vessels toward the Black Sea due to the increasing number of attacks in the region.

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