Türkiye’s Erdogan offers to mediate in Ukraine nuclear plant stand-off
- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Vladimir Putin that Türkiye can play facilitator role in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant issue
- There was no immediate mention of Erdogan having also spoken to Ukraine’s President Zelensky on Saturday to offer his mediation
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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered on Saturday to mediate in the stand-off over a Russian-occupied nuclear power station in war-torn Ukraine that has raised fears of an atomic disaster.
Alarm has grown in recent weeks over shelling hitting the area of Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine on Friday said it bombed a Russian base in the nearby town of Energodar, destroying three artillery systems as well as an ammunition depot.
Erdogan on Saturday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “that Türkiye can play a facilitator role in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as they did in the grain deal”, the Turkish presidency said.
Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, was forced to halt almost all deliveries after Russia invaded in late February, raising fears of a global food crisis.
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There was no immediate mention of Erdogan having also spoken to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday to offer his mediation.
Last month, Erdogan warned of the danger of a nuclear disaster when he visited Lviv for talks with the Ukrainian leader.
The Turkish leader 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.
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Russia’s envoy to Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said six IAEA inspectors would stay behind for several days and that two more would remain there “on a permanent basis”.
The Russian invasion of pro-Western Ukraine has killed thousands of people and caused millions to flee their homes.
Western powers have reacted by dispatching military aid to Kyiv in a bid to stem the Russian advance, and slapping economic sanctions on Moscow.
On Friday, the Group of Seven (G7) major industrial democracies vowed to move urgently to set a price cap on Russian oil imports, a crucial source of revenue for Moscow.
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Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant inspected by UN body despite shelling
As if on cue, Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had halted gas deliveries to Germany for an indefinite period as there were leaks in a turbine. Its German manufacturer said that was not a valid reason to halt gas flows.
EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni on Saturday however said the European Union was “well prepared” in the event of a total halt in Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage capacity and energy-saving measures.
In the EU “gas storage is currently at about 80 per cent, thanks to the diversification of supplies”, even if the situation varies from one country to another, Gentiloni said.
Ukraine has accused Russia of storing ammunition at Zaporizhzhia and deploying hundreds of soldiers there.
It also suspects Moscow is intending to divert power from the plant to the nearby Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
