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UN Secretary-General António Guterres is a friend of quiet diplomacy
Photo: JEON HEON-KYUN / AFP
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meet today in Lviv in western Ukraine.
At the tripartite summit, among other things, the "end of the war between Ukraine and Russia will be discussed through diplomatic channels," according to a statement by the Turkish Presidential Office.
According to UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, it is also about the Black Sea Grain Initiative, in which Turkey plays a crucial role.
A bilateral meeting between Selensky and Guterres is also expected.
At the end of July, the UN and Turkey mediated agreements so that Ukraine could again export grain through its Black Sea ports despite the Russian war of aggression.
The United Nations feared food shortages and starvation in poor parts of the world if Ukraine failed as a major grain supplier.
Guterres prefers to negotiate behind closed doors
Dujarric went on to say that there was "no doubt" that the dangerous situation around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia and a planned international expert mission to the power plant would also be addressed.
Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia, has been under fire for days.
Ukraine and Russia blame each other for this.
The United Nations had shown much more reluctance to talk to Zelenskyy about ending hostilities.
"There are a number of issues that are being raised: the conflict in general, the need for a political solution to this conflict," Dujarric said when asked if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire were also being discussed.
Guterres repeatedly emphasizes that he is a friend of the quiet diplomacy that negotiates ways out of a conflict behind closed doors.
Talks between Kyiv and Moscow in the first weeks of the war had been broken off without any result.
Ukraine wants to recapture its lost territories so as not to leave its compatriots at the mercy of the Russian occupation.
Russia's war aims continue to boil down to subjugating Ukraine.
After the meeting in Lviv, Guterres will travel on to Odessa on the Black Sea, it said.
Before his return to New York, the UN chief will visit the joint coordination center for monitoring grain exports across the Black Sea in Istanbul on Saturday.
It was initially unclear whether the UN Secretary-General would also travel to Kyiv.
mgo/dpa
