Kyiv/Lyiv/Moscow - Russia warned on Thursday of the risk of a man-made nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Ukraine of planning a "provocation" as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres far away from the front lines, in the western city of Lviv, where diplomatic efforts to help end the war will also be on the agenda.

The plant, near front lines, has come under fire repeatedly in recent weeks, with both Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for the shelling.

The Russian defence ministry accused Ukraine of trying to stage a "minor accident" at the plant in southern Ukraine in order to blame Russia.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will discuss ways to find a political solution to the war and address the threat to global food supplies and risk of a disaster at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which has been taken over by Russian forces.

In his nightly video address Wednesday, Zelensky reaffirmed his demand for the Russian military to leave the plant, emphasizing that “only absolute transparency and control of the situation” by, among others, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, could guarantee a return to nuclear safety.

Kirillov said an emergency at the plant could see “a discharge of radioactive substances into the atmosphere and spreading them to hundreds of kilometers away ... An emergency of this kind will cause massive migration and will have more catastrophic consequences than the looming gas energy crisis in Europe.”

With such stakes, the role of a go-between like Erdogan could become ever more important.

Erdogan, whose nation is a member of NATO which backs Ukraine in the war, also oversees a wobbly economy that has been increasingly reliant on Russia for trade. That backdrop turns Thursday’s meetings in Lviv into a walk on a diplomatic tightrope. Earlier this month, the Turkish leader met on the same issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian bombardment of a residential area of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, on Wednesday evening killed seven people and wounded 16, the Ukrainian Emergencies Service said.
-Reuters/AP