18 Aug 2022 11:16

Guterres to visit Ukrainian port, presumably Odesa, after meeting with Zelensky and Erdogan

MOSCOW. Aug 18 (Interfax) - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv on Thursday and will visit one of three Ukrainian ports the following day.

Guterres will discuss ways to de-escalate the crisis at the meeting with the Ukrainian and Turkish leaders, Ukrainian media quoted the UN secretary general's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq as saying.

At the meeting, Guterres also plans to discuss the movement of vessels from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, food and grain exports, and the situation around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

According to a report on the UN website, Guterres will then travel to one of the three Ukrainian ports involved in the Black Sea grain initiative.

The UN secretary general's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said earlier that Guterres would head to Odesa where he would visit the local port, which is being used as part of the grain export initiative. According to Dujarric, the UN also expects Guterres to hold a one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Before his return to New York, the UN chief will make a stopover in Istanbul and will visit the Joint Coordination Center for monitoring grain exports across the Black Sea, the UN press service said.