Erdoğan invited Zelensky and Putin to propose the creation of an international commission of inquiry into the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday proposed to Ukrainian and Russian Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin to create an international commission of inquiry to clarify all aspects of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in the south. Ukraine, France Press reported.

In a phone conversation with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, President Erdogan said “a commission can be formed with the participation of experts from the warring parties, the United Nations and the international community, including Turkey,” the Turkish presidential office announced on Wednesday. , in a press release, according to AFP and Agerpres agencies.

Angara said the commission “can conduct an in-depth investigation into the destruction of the Kahowka Dam”.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted on Wednesday that in his discussions with Erdogan, he addressed the “humanitarian and environmental consequences” of flooding in southern Ukraine caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

“We discussed the humanitarian and environmental consequences of the Russian terrorist act at the Kakhovka hydropower plant, including the dangers to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” Zelensky said on Twitter, introducing his Turkish number during the phone call. Urgent need to face disaster”.

In his first reaction after the destruction of a dam in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin blamed Kiev

Erdogan, who later spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he hoped the investigation would allow him to “remove all doubts,” the Turkish president stressed in a separate statement.

During a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Putin condemned the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-occupied territory in the Kherson region, calling it “a barbaric act” on Kiev’s part, the Kremlin said in a statement.

“The barbaric act aimed at destroying the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian disaster,” Putin said.

The battlefield and entire cities were flooded as the great dam broke

Moscow and Kiev share responsibility for an attack on a dam that supplied water to Russia-annexed Crimea in 2014, and which was a potential route for Ukrainian troops to retake the occupied territories.

The dam’s destruction sent the Dnieper river high, forcing thousands of civilians to evacuate flooded areas and raising fears of environmental disaster.

Turkey, a NATO member, has managed to maintain good relations with both Kiev and Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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