UN chief to meet Ukrainian, Turkish leaders

UN chief Antonio Guterres will meet the leaders of Ukraine and Turkey in Lviv on Thursday, after a deal reached last month that allowed the resumption of grain exports after Russia's invasion blocked essential global supplies.

The meeting came a day after the head of NATO said it was urgent for the UN's atomic watchdog to inspect Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been sparked by concerns of a nuclear accident.

A spokesman for Guterres said that the UN chief, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the grain deal, as well as the need for a political solution to the conflict. He said that he had no doubt that the issue of the nuclear power plant would be raised.

In his regular nightly address on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Guterres had arrived and that the two would work to get the necessary results for Ukraine. Guterres is scheduled to travel to Odessa on Friday, one of three ports involved in the grain exports deal, which was hammered out in July under the supervision of the UN with Ankara's mediation. He will then go to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Centre, the body that is tasked with overseeing the accord.

In the first half of August, 21 freighters were authorised to sail under the deal, carrying more than 563,000 tonnes of agricultural products, including more than 451,000 tons of corn.

The first wartime shipment of UN food aid for Africa reached the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday, carrying 23,000 tons of wheat.