President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have accepted an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet Thursday to discuss ways to end the six-month-old war and review the deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped to world markets to help alleviate the global grain crisis.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Tuesday that he has no doubt the three leaders will also discuss the situation at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling.
Dujarric said they also will likely talk about a U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate the killings at the Olenivka prison in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine that the warring nations accuse each other of carrying out.
He said he expects “the need for a political solution” to the war to be raised during the meeting in the western city of Lviv, not far from the Polish border.
It comes after the signing of an international agreement in Istanbul on July 22 clearing the way for Ukraine to export 22 million tons of corn and other grain stuck at its Black Sea ports and in silos since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 14. A separate memorandum between Russia and the U.N. signed the same day was aimed at clearing roadblocks to its shipments of food and fertilizer to world markets.
Erdoğan’s office confirmed that the president will be in Lviv on Thursday to meet with Zelenskyy and Guterres to discuss the grain deal as well as ways to end the war through diplomatic means.
Erdoğan and Zelenskyy will discuss all aspects of Türkiye-Ukraine relations at the strategic partnership level, according to the statement.
As part of the visit, the leaders will meet with Guterres to hold a trilateral meeting.
"During the meeting, the steps that can be taken to end the Ukraine-Russia war through diplomatic means, by increasing the activities of the mechanism established for the export of Ukrainian grain to the world markets, will be discussed," it added.
Guterres first proposed the grain deal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at separate meetings in Moscow and Kyiv in late April. The U.N.’s Dujarric said the secretary-general’s trip to Ukraine is “a chance for him just to see first-hand the results of an initiative ... that is so critically important to hundreds of millions of people.”
After the three-way meeting, and likely bilateral talks between Erdoğan and Guterres, the U.N. chief will travel to Odesa, one of the three Ukrainian ports now operating to ship grain, on Friday, Dujarric said. He will then travel to Istanbul on Saturday to visit the center coordinating the Black Sea shipping, which includes the four parties to the deal -- Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the United Nations.
Russia was not invited by Zelenskyy to the meeting in Lviv.
Dujarric said the secretary-general had “a very good conversation” Monday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, which touched on the grain shipments from both Ukraine and Russia.
During the phone call, Guterres and Shoigu also discussed “the conditions for the safety operations of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant” and a fact-finding mission to the Olenivka prison, Dujarric said.
The war and a halt to all Ukrainian grain shipments and most Russian shipments of grain and fertilizer added significantly to the global food crisis because both countries are major suppliers to world markets.
Developing countries have been especially hard-hit by supply shortages and high prices. Even though ships are now leaving Russia and Ukraine and some prices have dropped, the food crisis has not ended.
Three Black Sea ports were unblocked last month under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye, making it possible to send hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain to buyers and bringing relief to some of the millions worldwide who are on the brink of starvation.
The U.N. and Türkiye, a NATO member and maritime neighbor to both Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, have been working for two months to broker the deal. Türkiye controls the straits leading into the Black Sea and has acted as a mediator on the grain issue.
The halt to grain exports during the five-month war has caused prices to rise dramatically, and reopening Ukrainian ports may potentially avert famine in parts of the world.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia’s invasion of the country and naval blockade of its ports have halted shipments. Some grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river, but the prices of vital commodities like wheat and barley have soared during the nearly five-month war.
