Türkiye could play a facilitating role for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine as it did with the landmark grain corridor agreement between the countries, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a phone call on Saturday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The offer came hours before the global atomic energy watchdog said that Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility had been disconnected from its last remaining main power line to the grid and was now relying on a reserve line.
Alarm has grown in recent weeks over shelling in the area of Europe's largest nuclear plant.
Ukraine said Friday it had bombed a Russian base in the nearby town of Energodar, destroying three artillery systems as well as an ammunition depot.
Last month, Erdoğan warned of the danger of a nuclear disaster when he visited the western city of Lviv for talks with the Ukrainian leader.
The Turkish president said he wanted to avoid "another Chernobyl," referring to the world's worst nuclear accident in another part of Ukraine in 1986 when it was still part of the Soviet Union.
The two leaders also exchanged views on regional issues, particularly about developments related to grain exports and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, according to the statement.
Ankara is one of the most active countries working to ensure a permanent cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia. Its delicately balanced act of assuming a role as a mediator by keeping communication channels with both warring sides open provides a glimmer of hope in diplomatic efforts to find a solution and achieve peace in the Ukraine crisis. With its unique position of having friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine, Türkiye has won widespread praise for its push to end the war.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Ankara has offered to mediate between the two sides and host peace talks, underlining its support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. While Ankara has opposed international sanctions designed to isolate Moscow, it also closed its straits to prevent some Russian vessels from crossing through them.
In a breakthrough, Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for peace talks in Istanbul on March 29 as the war entered its second month, with casualties piling up on both sides. Türkiye also hosted the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine in Antalya in March and hosted four-way meetings recently in Istanbul between Moscow, Ankara, Kyiv and the United Nations with the aim of solving the grain crisis.
Erdoğan also expressed his condolences to Putin on the death of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Erdoğan and Putin agreed to discuss all bilateral issues at a meeting in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit on Sept. 15-16.