Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday said the role of the international community in reviving diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war was discussed during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres.
Erdoğan remarks arrived during a joint press conference in Ukraine’s Lviv, where the Turkish leader arrived on Thursday for a trilateral meeting with Zelensky and U.N.’s Guterres, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The summit took place under the “positive environment” created by the deal for the resumption of Ukraine’s grain export, Erdoğan said, whose visit to Ukraine marks a first since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February.
“We highlighted the need for the international community to take on more responsibility to revive the diplomatic process,’’ the Turkish leader told reporters the joint press conference.
Zelenskiy thanked Erdoğan for his ongoing support to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, calling his visit “an important message of support from a strong country,” Anadolu said.
Turkey, which maintains good ties with Russia and Ukraine, last month, helped broker a grain deal between Kyiv and Moscow, staving off fears of hunger for millions around the world amid the shortage of Ukrainian grain since the start of its war with Russia.
The sides also discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia, with Erdoğan saying he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Anadolu
“We attach great importance to this issue…of what happened to the exchange of these captives,” Erdoğan said.
The Turkish president also warned of the dangers of “another Chernobyl” disaster erupting at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant held by invading Russian forces, Anadolu said.
Guterres, for his part, called for the demilitarization of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying was gravely concerned by the situation inside and around the facility.
“The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to re-establish Zaporizhzhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area,” Guterres said.
Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for shelling the nuclear plant, which was captured by Russian forces in early March. The nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, is near the front lines, and has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster.
Ahval