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The Turkish president, Recep Tayip Erdogan, has insisted on becoming a bridge between two worlds that have cut their ties.
So this Thursday
he traveled by plane to the Polish city of Rzeszow
, curiously the same airport where Western weapons arrive, and from there, by car, to the monumental Lviv, a historical puzzle in the history of Europe, a few 150 kilometers away, where
Volodimir Zelensky
was waiting for him
after making a visit to the city hospital to honor wounded and mutilated soldiers at the front.
Unlike many international leaders, Erdogan did not travel to kyiv, but Zelensky himself had to travel to the so-called "cultural capital of Ukraine".
They met at Potocki Palace.
On August 5,
Erdogan met with Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi
, and it is not unreasonable to think that both appointments, that one and yesterday's, are related.
Many Ukrainians see Erdogan as a negotiator at the service of the Russian president, although it is clear that he has his own agenda in which some issues, such as his interest in occupying northern Syria,
may collide with another Kremlin ally: Bashar Asad.
.
The Turkish president sought a prior agreement with Zelenski on Thursday for a while later to sit at the table with Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations.
He attempted to re-launch some kind of ceasefire as a first step to ending the war,
a scenario that still seems highly unlikely as the invasion progresses
.
Neither side has met its objectives.
Putin does not yet have the whole of Donbas, a minimum objective, and he is far from achieving it.
Zelensky has promised to liberate all Russian-occupied territory, including
illegally annexed Crimea
, and has carried out only minor counter-offensives.
Neither of them has any incentive to sit down to negotiate.
What can be unblocked is the presence of Russian troops in the Zaporizhia nuclear plant.
Zelensky asked Guterres for the UN to "guarantee the demilitarization" of the nuclear power plant
"to avoid a catastrophe of unknown proportions."
But without the permission of the Russian invader, it seems like an entelechy.
Now the ball is on the blue roof of the UN.
"The United Nations has to take care of the security of that strategic place, its demilitarization and the complete liberation of Russian troops," said the Ukrainian president.
It is the first time that the supranational organization has been asked to take charge of a facility of these characteristics.
As satellite images show,
Russia has been using the Zaporizhia power station for months as a warehouse for heavy weapons
and as a launching pad for attacks across the Ukraine-controlled Dnipro River.
In this way, Moscow manages to protect its armored columns from the lethal attacks of the Himars missiles, which are destroying each Russian weapons and fuel depot at a long distance, but incapable of being used against the central station for logical reasons.
Moscow has accused kyiv for its part of attacking the plant, a complaint that they actually make to each other.
What Moscow has done
is to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian energy system to connect it to the Russian
one .
With each leader surrounded by six of his ministers, it was easy to tell the Turks from the Ukrainians by the suits of some and the olive green T-shirts of others.
The issue behind the nuclear power plant was the grain, which is leaving the port of Odessa via Istanbul in dribs and drabs.
On Friday Antonio Guterres will visit that city to verify in situ
that the export commitments of the Ukrainian cereal are fulfilled
.
Curiosity was put by the strangest of Erdogan's entourage in Lviv: Haluk Bayraktar, owner of the company that invoices the famous drones with which Ukraine stopped Russian columns on the outskirts of kyiv.
This company
has given away up to 24 of its reconnaissance models to Ukraine
, in addition to some attack models paid for with anonymous donations from the Baltic States.
His commitment to Kiev seems total and it is not surprising that they sign new contracts to send more drones, whose name has inspired a song in Ukraine
that is heard at all hours on taxi drivers' radios.
Since the beginning of the invasion, the importance of the city of Lviv has been paramount in the Ukrainian war effort.
It was not only the exit gate for millions of refugees arriving from all over the country, but also the gateway for tens of thousands of men and women willing to enlist in its army.
Some of them were foreigners,
but most of them were Ukrainians with military service
.
In its hotels and cafes, activity was frenetic in those first weeks, since most of the Western embassies moved there due to its distance from the front.
The Ukrainian secret services were looking for Russian spies while the US insisted that Zelensky move to the safety of this city.
He finally he has done it,
but not to end the war or to surrender.
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Articles Alberto Rojas
War Ukraine Russia