UPDATES: Kiev Cannot Guarantee Safe Passage of IAEA Staff to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

UN chief Antonio Guterres will meet with Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lvov on August 18, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

"At the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, the Secretary General will be in Lvov on Thursday to attend a trilateral meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and the Ukrainian leader," Dujarric told a briefing.

On Friday, Guterres will visit Odessa.

"On the night from February 24 to 25 I reached the border. My children, parents and dogs arrived there at the same time. I hugged and kissed them and went back to Ukraine, and they left Ukraine," he said in an interview given to Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon aired on YouTube.

The Swiss budget for 2023 provides 1.7 billion Swiss francs ($1.8 billion) for receiving Ukrainian refugees.

The United States already provided Kiev with $4 billion and plans to allocate $4.5 billion more to help Ukraine confront Russia, Igor Kostyukov, the head of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), said on Tuesday.

"In particular, the uncontrolled ‘pumping’ of the Kiev regime with weapons for the war with Russia ‘until the last Ukrainian’ ([US President Joe] Biden’s administration has already allocated $4 billion for these purposes and plans to spend $4.5 billion) increases the risk of it falling into the hands of international terrorists," Kostyukov said during the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security.

According to the Russian official, a group of US congressmen visited Kiev in July to investigate the issue of missing western weapons in Ukraine.

Six power line poles with connections to the Kursk nuclear power plant (NPP) in western Russia were blown up by the Ukrainian saboteurs, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday.

"On August 4, 9, and 12, in the Kurchatov district of the Kursk region, Ukrainian sabotage groups blew up six poles of high-voltage power lines (110, 330, and 750 kW), through which the Kursk NPP supplies power to industry, transport, life support, and social infrastructure, as well as to the population of the region and neighboring regions of the country," the agency said in a statement.

This act led to "a violation of the technological process of the operation of the nuclear power plant," the statement noted, adding that the agency is searching for saboteurs and their possible accomplices.

According to the statement, the security of nuclear power facilities has been increased. Criminal cases were initiated under the article "terrorist act".

French President Emmanuel Macron will call Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP, BFMTV reported, citing the Elysee Palace.

Moscow hopes that Kiev and the UN will not risk the lives of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) by sending them via the line of contact, there are other routes, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to the international organizations in Vienna, said on Tuesday.

"The Ukrainians directly say that the international mission should go to the Zaporozhye NPP from the Ukrainian side and cross the front line. I think this is too risky and endangers the lives of high-level international officials. There are other routes by which you can go to the station," Ulyanov told the Solovyov Live show.

Earlier in the day, Kabulov told Sputnik that some former Afghan special forces troops are fighting in Ukraine on Kiev's side as mercenaries.

An interim Afghan government led by the Taliban came to power last fall after the withdrawal of US troops from the country and the collapse of the US-backed government. The Taliban takeover triggered economic disarray and food shortages that have pushed the country to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of Afghans have fled the country fearful of the Taliban, widespread violation of human rights, and the deprivation of women and girls of their freedoms.

Five general cargo ships loaded with Ukrainian food products on Tuesday left the ports of Ukraine and are on their way to Istanbul under the UN-brokered grain deal, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

"Five vessels with a cargo of grain and corn have left the Ukrainian ports - two from Yuzhnoye and three from Chernomorsk," a statement read.

The ministry added that the Joint Coordination Center, established under the grain deal, will inspect four other ships that are waiting for their departure for Ukraine.

On July 22, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey signed an UN-brokered initiative to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships with food and fertilizer exports from Black Sea ports. Three key Ukrainian ports – Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhnoye – were unblocked to resume exports. A joint coordination center was set up to monitor the implementation of the initiative, including ensuring that cargo ships do not carry unauthorized goods or personnel.