The leaders of Ukraine, Turkey and the UN will meet on Thursday in Lviv

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to review the deal allowing Ukrainian grain shipments. to world markets to help ease the global grain crisis and discuss diplomatic issues. ways to end the six-month war.

UN spokesman 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 to bomb.

Dujarric said they would also likely discuss a UN fact-finding mission to investigate the Olenivka prison killings in a breakaway region of eastern Ukraine that the warring nations accuse each other of committing.

The meeting in the western city of Lviv, not far from the Polish border, comes after the signing of an international agreement in Istanbul on July 22 that paves the way for Ukraine to export 22 million tons of maize and other stuck grains. in its Black Sea ports. and in silos since Russia invaded the country on February 14. A separate memorandum between Russia and the UN signed on the same day was aimed at removing obstacles to its food and fertilizer shipments to world markets.

Erdoğan’s office confirmed that his leader will be in Lviv on Thursday to meet with Zelenskyy and Guterres to discuss the grain deal and ways to end the war through diplomatic means.

Guterres first proposed the grain deal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in separate meetings in Moscow and Kyiv in late April. The UN’s Dujarric said the secretary-general’s trip to Ukraine is “an opportunity for him to see first-hand the results of an initiative … that is of vital importance to hundreds of millions of people.”

After the trilogue meeting and likely bilateral talks between Erdogan and Guterres, the UN chief will travel on Friday to Odessa, one of three Ukrainian ports now operating to ship grain, Dujarric said. He will then travel to Istanbul on Saturday to visit the center that coordinates Black Sea shipping, which includes the four parties to the agreement: Ukraine, Russia, Turkey 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” on Monday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who discussed grain shipments from both Ukraine and Russia.

During the phone call, Guterres and Shoigu also discussed “the conditions for the security operations of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant” and a fact-finding mission to the Olenivka prison, Dujarric said.

The war and the disruption of all grain shipments from Ukraine and most grain and fertilizer shipments from Russia contributed significantly to the global food crisis because both countries are major suppliers to world markets.

Developing countries have been particularly hard hit by tight supplies and high prices. Although ships are now leaving Russia and the Ukraine and some prices have fallen, the food crisis is not over.

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

SHARE: