Copernicus Street in the center of Lviv after lunch on Thursday 18 July is heavily cordoned off by the police. Next to the movie palace, which is also named after a noted astronomer, a few hundred city residents gather on the sidewalks. The meeting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary General António Guterres, which takes place a few dozen meters away, at the Potocki Palace, is marked by pickets of relatives of the captured defenders of the plant. Mariupol Azovstal. However, many city dwellers stop by simply out of curiosity for such a tall visit.

Erdogan was last in Ukraine in February, just before the war, and Guterres arrived in Kyiv at the end of April. Then, on the day of the visit, the Russian army bombed the Ukrainian capital, journalist Vera Girich died under the rubble of a residential building. This time there were no casualties in Lviv.

UN and Lviv legal traditions

Journalists had to wait for a briefing for about two hours without phones and computers. Due to translation problems, the speeches of the leaders were delayed and they did not find time to answer questions from the press.

The president of Ukraine began by justifying the location of the meeting. He recalled Lviv University graduates Rafael Lemkin and Gersh Lauterpacht: the former is the author of the term “genocide”, and the latter is a co-author of modern international law and the UN Charter. António Guterres also dedicated a brief speech to university students. “The war has brought countless deaths, massive destruction and migration, serious violations of human rights. People need peace. Peace according to the UN Charter. Peace according to international law”, he emphasized during the briefing.

Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, insisted on the need for a Special International Tribunal for Russian aggression against Ukraine – only in this way, in his opinion, will it be possible to restore the world legal order and protect international law at the end of the war.

United Nations mission to investigate the tragedy in Yelenovka

Relatives of the captured fighters of the Azov regiment waited in vain for several hours for the participants of the meeting on the side of the police cordon – the motorcades were leaving on the other side of the block. However, the establishment of a prisoner of war exchange and the investigation of their mass death at one of the colony’s barracks in Yelenovka was already one of the topics of negotiations.

“What happened in Yelenovka is unacceptable,” said António Guterres, noting that the International Committee of the Red Cross must gain access to places of detention for detainees as soon as possible.

He also spoke about the decision to send a separate UN mission to establish the facts of this tragedy, for which Kyiv and Moscow are blaming each other. The head of the mission will be Brazilian General Carlos dos Santos Cruz, commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013-2015.

However, the participants of the lectures did not indicate specific dates for the beginning of the work of the mission. According to Guterres, work continues to obtain guarantees of security and access to places of detention. “This mission must be carried out under conditions such that its participants have safe and unimpeded access, without interference from the other side,” he explained.

“Russia committed one of the worst terrorist attacks in Yelenovka. The international community must do everything to force the Russian Federation to comply with the conventions,” insisted Zelensky.

UN insists on rapid demilitarization of the ZNPP

Mission to Zaporozhye NPP

The presidents and the secretary general discussed another potential mission in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation – the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant should be visited by IAEA experts as soon as possible. “None of us wants to experience another Chernobyl,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

António Guterres insisted on the rapid demilitarization of the ZNPP and said that the UN secretariat had studied the logistical possibilities of the IAEA visit. However, the mission will be able to function only with the consent of Moscow and Kyiv, and it will start its work only from the Ukrainian capital. Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that nuclear experts generally must bypass territory occupied by the Russian Federation, however, he did not explain the details of the route. But in this way it is now possible to reach the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant only by water, having crossed the Kakhovka reservoir.

Expanding the Grain Business and the Road to Peace

The “grain deal” is so far the most important outcome of negotiations involving the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia. After the ports of Odessa were unlocked on August 1, 25 ships departed there, delivering around 625,000 tonnes of grain, noted Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We demonstrate an example of working together that is historic in nature – not just Ukraine but the whole world feels the result of the Istanbul accords,” he said, insisting on “expanding the effectiveness” of the accord.

Ukrainian grain exports may increase

For his part, António Guterres boasted of the stabilization of world food markets and the eight percent drop in wheat prices since the signing of the agreement. “But let us be under no illusions – there is still a long way to go before this affects people’s everyday lives, in their local bakeries and in their markets,” said the UN Secretary-General.

The Ukrainian president’s guests called the “grain deal” a major victory for diplomacy, which should have paved the way for a new peaceful deal. “Personally, I remain confident that the war will end at the negotiating table. The main problem is to find the shortest and fairest way to the negotiating table. I believe it passes through the parameters formed in March in Istanbul”, insisted Erdogan, agreeing again to assume the role of the main “peace dove” in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

“Mr Erdogan says the grain deal gives us a diplomatic window into possible diplomatic agreements to end the war with Russia. I said for my part that there is no faith in the Russian Federation. I think in this window there are weapons , and so I am very surprised that they are ready for some kind of peace… First, it seems to me, they must leave our territories, and then it will be later”, replied Volodymyr Zelenskyy, being so carried away by the metaphor from the window that he had to separately remind the translators about this.