Erdoğan meets Zelensky, Guterres at three-way summit in Lviv

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a trilateral summit in Lviv during his first trip to Ukraine after the war broke out on Feb. 24, as three leaders assessed the recent situation in the sixth month of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as ongoing grain exports to the world markets.

Traveling to Lviv via land from Poland, Erdoğan held his first meeting with Zelensky at Potocki Palace. Erdoğan and Zelensky were accompanied by a large delegation comprising ministers and senior officials. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba were also present at the meetings.

Erdoğan and Zelensky held their last in-person meeting in February, days before the Russian invasion started on Feb. 24. Zelensky held a separate meeting with Guterres as well. All the programs, including the press conference, took place under heavy security measures.

In their lengthy meeting, Erdoğan and Zelensky discussed the bilateral relations, especially economic, trade and defense industry in the context of the ongoing war. Türkiye and Ukraine have deepened their cooperation in the defense industry, with the former supplying the latter with armed drones produced by a private company in Türkiye. There were plans to expand the cooperation by producing these armed drones in the territories of Ukraine.

The two leaders also shared their opinion on how this conflict would end, as Erdoğan has been urging Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet in person in Türkiye for a ceasefire and a peace agreement. Neither side is seemingly willing to sit around the same table, but both Erdoğan and Guterres are hoping that a recent deal for the grain export can create a new environment.

Erdoğan recently held two meetings with Putin in July and August in which he discussed the war and ways to end it. Türkiye has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine but mediated between the two warring sides. The two countries’ foreign ministers met in Antalya in March, although no breakthrough could be provided.

The bilateral Erdoğan-Zelensky meeting then turned into a trilateral summit with the participation of Guterres. The U.N. chief has been in Ukraine since Aug. 17 and is planning to visit Odesa Port of Ukraine to observe the grain export.

The three men discussed the recent developments in Ukraine in the sixth month of the ongoing war, and particularly the resumption of grain export from this country to the world markets. Türkiye and the U.N. mediated between Russia and Ukraine for the grain export through a secure corridor established in the Black Sea. Dozens of vessels have already transported tens of thousands of tons of wheat, corn and other food products to the world markets.

The parties are willing to sustain the operation by expanding the scope of the export, which is being controlled and coordinated through the Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center.

The two men also raised the worrisome news from the Zaporizhia Power Plant as Ukraine blames Russia for deploying heavy weaponry at the expense of endangering the entire continent. Zelensky called on the U.N. to ensure security at the Zaporizhia Power Plant, where increased fighting has raised fears of a nuclear incident.

“The U.N. must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarisation and complete liberation from Russian troops,” Zelensky said in a statement after meeting Guterres in Lviv. The Ukrainian leader also criticized “deliberate” Russian attacks on the facility.

The Zaporizhia Power Plant is known to be the largest power plant on the European continent.

Both sides accuse each other of escalating the situation around the power plant.