“Indeed, such a message appeared in the media today – that it could be his visit or online inclusion. There is a context here: the first nuclear power plant is being built in Turkey, on April 27 it is planned to load nuclear fuel into the first power unit. Since Rosatom is building, it is most likely options for such a visit were being worked out. Now we are working on this issue, so far the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other official authorities have not confirmed this,” the ambassador said.
According to him, after the issue is worked out, the official position of Ukraine will be made public.
Bodnar noted that Turkey has not ratified the Rome Statute, so Putin cannot be arrested on its territory according to the warrant of the International Criminal Court.
On March 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Putin could make an official visit to Turkey at the end of April. According to him, Putin will take part in the fuel loading ceremony at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant built jointly by Russia and Turkey. However, he did not rule out that this could happen online.
Akkuyu NPP is the first Turkish nuclear power plant, it is being built jointly with Russia. Project is approximately $20 billion, it includes construction and commissioning of four power units with VVER-1200 reactors.
The agreement on the construction of the station was signed in May 2010. On April 3, 2018, during a joint ceremony in Ankara, Erdogan and Putin launched the construction of the station via video link.
The head of the Turkish Ministry of Energy, Fatih Donmez, said that they plan to complete the construction of the station and put the first reactor into operation before the end of the year.
