New Delhi: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN chief Antonio Guterres are set to meet on Thursday in the western city of Lviv to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United Nations announced on Tuesday, reported AFP.
This comes after Russia claimed massive explosions at a military base in the Kremlin-controlled Crimean peninsula. The explosions also damaged electrical power infrastructure.
Huge fireballs erupted at a military site in Crimea, early on Tuesday, where ammunition was being stored temporarily. Images shared on social media showed thick black smoke rising. The defence ministry added that the blasts damaged civilian infrastructure, "including power lines, a power plant, a railway track" and residential buildings.
"As a result of an act of sabotage, a military storage facility near the village of Dzhankoi was damaged," Russian news agencies reported the defence ministry as saying, as per the AFP report.
In a similar explosion last week, a person was killed at a Russian military airbase in Crimea.
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According to the report, Ukraine hasn't directly claimed responsibility but senior officials have implied involvement. The presidential aide said that the explosions may have caused damage to the infrastructure in Crimea where the power is supplied from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Moscow and Kyiv have been pointing fingers at each other over the damage caused to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant due to airstrikes this month. The nuclear plant located in southern Ukraine is the biggest in Europe. Zelensky, on Monday, said that catastrophe at the Russia-controlled facility would threaten all of Europe.
UN spokesman Dujarric said he had "no doubt that the issue of the nuclear power plant" would be raised at Thursday's meeting, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the US of trying to drag on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia – which began in February. Putin's accusations also include that Washington is putting Ukrainians in the firing line and supplying Kyiv with heavy weapons. Anticipating little resistance and hoping to topple the government of Kyiv within hours, Moscow ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February.
"The situation in Ukraine shows that the US is trying to prolong this conflict," Putin said Tuesday, as reported by AFP.
Washington is "using the people of Ukraine as cannon fodder", he added.
Washington has provided Kyiv with long-range, precision artillery that has allowed Ukraine to strike Russian supply facilities deep inside Moscow-controlled territory.