The President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, talked to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin over the phone on 7 June 2023, the Yevropeiska Pravda reported, referring to the Turkish presidential office.
During a phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested that the international expert commission should investigate the Kakhovka dam destruction in the Kherson Oblast of Ukraine. Erdoğan offered Zelenskyy to initiate an international investigation involving “experts from the warring parties, the United Nations, and other countries, including Türkiye.”
The President of Türkiye promised Zelenskyy to help Ukraine address the aftermath of the dam destruction and offered to use the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a model for talks, the Yevropeiska Pravda reported.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would continue his efforts to reach a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and urged Russia and Ukraine to start peace talks, the Office of the President of Türkiye reported.
President Zelenskyy confirmed the phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart.
“I had a phone conversation with the President of Türkiye,” Zelesnkyy wrote on Twitter. “We discussed the humanitarian and environmental consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, particularly the risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. I handed over a list of Ukraine’s urgent needs to eliminate the disaster. Türkiye’s voice is essential when it comes to withdrawing Russian occupation troops from Ukrainian territory. The role of Türkiye is also vital when it comes to the return of our illegally imprisoned citizens, including Crimean Tatars, and the continuation and expansion of the grain initiative,” Zelenskyy added.
Following the phone conversation with Ukraine’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and proposed to establish an international commission to investigate the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, according to the Office of the President of Türkiye.
During the phone conversation with Erdogan, Putin accused Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. According to Russia’s President, Ukrainian forces destroyed the Kakhovka dam “at the behest of Western curators.”
Related:
- Russian troops blow up Kakhovka dam, unleashing environmental disaster
- Russians blew up Kakhovka Dam using explosives planted there last fall – Danilov
- Ukrainian dam engineer rules out self-destruction of Kakhovka dam
- Almost 3,000 buildings underwater in Ukrainian-controlled part of Kherson Oblast
