Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s salute to Ukranian soldiers during his official visit to the country on Monday has angered Moscow, Deniz Zeyrek, a columnist of Sözcü daily, said, citing a local journalist.

Erdoğan said “slava Ukreine” (glory to Ukraine) to Ukrainian soldiers during the official welcoming ceremony in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, by his side.

Video: Turkish President Erdogan has greeted Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv during meeting with President Zelensky pic.twitter.com/Az9wvU1iNj — Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) February 3, 2020

The salute, which has been used in Ukraine during official ceremonies since 2018, is seen as a symbol of opposition to Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and is backing insurgents in the western Ukrainian Donbass region, Zeyrek said.

Journalists and commentators in Russia interpreted Erdoğan’s behaviour as an “attempt to challenge Moscow,” the columnist said, citing Fuad Safarov, a journalist based in Russia.

Erdoğan visited Ukraine as relations between Ankara and Moscow hit a rocky patch due to the ongoing military assault of Russia-backed Syrian government forces in rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Turkey, which forced hundreds of thousands in Idlib to flee towards the Turkish border.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces killed seven Turkish soldiers and one civilian on Monday as they bombarded targets in the province.

Erdoğan, who has been strengthening ties with Moscow since 2016, is also adamantly opposed to the annexation of Crimea.

Turkey’s position about Crimean Tatars, an ethnic Turkic minority, is clear, the president told reporters on his way back from Kyiv. “We do not recognise Crimea’s annexation. We are continuing our efforts to protect Crimea’s rights,” Erdoğan said.