UPDATE - Türkiye, Ukraine, UN meet in Lviv to discuss Moscow-Kyiv war

ADDS DURATION OF MEETING, MINOR EDITS IN DECK, BODY

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - The presidents of Türkiye, Ukraine and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met on Thursday in the Ukrainian city of Lviv to address the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

The summit came right after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy's bilateral meeting to discuss all aspects of Ankara-Kyiv relations at the strategic partnership level.

Erdogan, Zelenskyy, and Guterres discussed steps that can be taken to end the war through diplomatic means, and maintain the mechanism established for the export of Ukrainian grain to world markets, according to the Turkish Communications Directorate.

The closed-door meeting lasted around 40 minutes.

They are expected to hold a joint news conference after the trilateral meeting.

On July 22, Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal in Istanbul to reopen three Ukrainian Black Sea ports for exporting Ukrainian grain stuck due to the military conflict, which is now in its sixth month.

To oversee the process, a Joint Coordination Center (JCC) opened in Istanbul on July 27, comprising representatives from the three countries and the UN, to enable safe transportation of commercial foodstuffs and fertilizers by merchant ships.

Guterres is also scheduled to visit the Ukrainian port city of Odesa to witness the grain shipment. He will head to Türkiye on Saturday and visit the JCC.