We don't want a new Chernobyl, says Turkish president

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's president on Thursday voiced concern on the clashes around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

"We expressed our concern about the ongoing conflict around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. We do not want to experience a new Chernobyl," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference after a trilateral meeting with his Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Erdogan, Zelenskyy and Guterres gathered in the Ukrainian city of Lviv to discuss steps that can be taken to end the Ukraine-Russia war through diplomatic means and maintain a mechanism recently established for the export of Ukrainian grain to world markets.

"During our trilateral meeting, we also evaluated the possibilities of transforming the positive atmosphere created by the Istanbul agreement into permanent peace," Erdogan said.

Erdogan said the entire world had begun feeling the "positive effects" of the agreement, which enabled the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea to the rest of the world.

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.

Speaking at the news conference, Guterres said the landmark agreement in Istanbul was signed to help vulnerable people in every corner of the world.

"Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I have been clear: There is no solution to the global food crisis without ensuring full global access to Ukraine's food products and Russian food and fertilizers," he added.