Concerns about the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant will also be an important topic at the meeting between António Guterres and President Volodímir Zelenski

Erdogan and Guterres will visit Ukraine in the context of the grain unblocking process

photo_camera REUTERS/GLEB GARANICH - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visits the town of Borodianka, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, outside Kiev, Ukraine 28 April 2022

A ray of hope. That was how UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the agreement reached in Istanbul to ensure the safe export of Ukrainian foodstuffs across the Black Sea, a grain that had been stockpiled in Ukraine since the Russians began their invasion. However, for the promoters of this pact, Turkey and the UN, it is not enough.

Guterres has announced that this week, probably on Thursday, he will meet in Ukraine with President Volodymir Zelenski and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss different aspects, possible solutions to the conflict and the mechanism established to export grain from Ukrainian territory at a trilateral summit. They will address this issue in the port of Odessa, one of the three departure points for the grain, after a brief stopover in Lviv.

The Ukrainian grain deal is currently at the heart of the negotiations. The UN Secretary General himself will then travel to Istanbul to visit the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), which oversees compliance with the agreement.

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Grain as a brake on famine in Africa

Since Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov signed the agreement at Istanbul's Domabahçe Palace, 17 ships have been chartered with grain and fertiliser in recent weeks.

The latest was the one leaving the port of Pivdennii with about 23,000 tonnes of grain bound for Djibouti for distribution throughout the Horn of Africa, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). "The Ministry of Infrastructure and the United Nations are currently working on ways to increase food supply to socially vulnerable sectors of the African population," WFP said in a statement. 

The shipment will help alleviate the famine and drought situation in much of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and South Sudan. According to WFP executive director David Beasley, "opening Black Sea ports is the most important thing we can do right now to help the world's hungry".

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Zaporiyia, the other claim to UN stabilisation

The grain deal does not mean a lowering of tensions. While the announcement of Guterres and Erdogan's visit to Kiev is being made, the Ukrainian authorities denounce an "unprecedented" cyber-attack against the website of its nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, at a time when the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant is also suffering one of its most critical moments due to fears of a radioactive leak, the result of recent attacks on the facility.

The international community is demanding an end to these attacks, while the UN is calling for the demilitarisation of Zaporiyia amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe. The plant, the largest in Europe, has been occupied by Russian troops since March, but operated by employees of the Ukrainian state company Energoatom, who claim they are working at gunpoint.

"The facility should not be used as part of any military operation. On the contrary, an urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a demilitarised perimeter to ensure the security of the area," said António Guterres in a statement. A request that he is likely to reiterate in his meeting with Zelenski. 

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In this regard, the UN has announced that it is willing to send inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to analyse the safety of the plant if Ukraine and Russia agree. These requests for security in Zaporiyia have been underlined by the United States and by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who established a telephone conversation with Zelenski on Tuesday and after which he warned of the risk of Russian presence and actions in the nuclear facilities, from which he has requested their withdrawal, according to a communiqué from the Elysée. 

The surprise visit to Ukraine by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former Colombian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Manuel Santos also took place in this context. Both visited cities such as Bucha, the scene of Russian war crimes.

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