Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to mediate the impasse over a Russian-occupied nuclear plant in Ukraine, fueling fears of an atomic catastrophe.
Saturday’s offer came hours before the global atomic energy watchdog said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had disconnected from the last remaining power line on the grid and was now relying on a backup line.
Amid growing alarm over shelling in the area of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in recent weeks, Ukraine said on Friday it had bombed a Russian base in the nearby town of Enerhodar, destroying three artillery systems as well as an ammunition depot.
Erdogan on Saturday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that “Turkey can play a facilitating role in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as they did in the wheat deal,” the Turkish presidency said.
Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest exporters of the grain, was forced to freeze almost all shipments after Russia launched an invasion in late February, raising fears of a global food crisis.
Grain exports through Black Sea ports resumed after Kiev and Moscow in July signed an agreement, with the United Nations and Turkey acting as guarantors.