KYIV: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Thursday for the United Nations to ensure the security of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia facility, controlled by Russian forces and operated by Ukrainian technicians.
Zelenskyy, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that “the deliberate terror” by Russia in attacking the power plant “can have global catastrophic consequences for the whole world.
“Therefore, the U.N. must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarization and complete liberation from Russian troops,” Zelenskyy said after meeting in the western Ukraine city of Lviv with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
For his part, Guterres called for the site to be “demilitarized,” with the withdrawal of military equipment and personnel.
“Common sense must prevail to avoid any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant,” Guterres said. “The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to reestablish Zaporizhhia as purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area.
“We must tell it like it is – any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” he said.
Guterres said the U.N. has the logistics and security capacity to support any mission the International Atomic Energy Agency undertakes to secure the plant, provided both Russia and Ukraine agree.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, commander of the Russian military’s radiological, chemical and biological protection forces, claimed that Ukrainian troops are planning to strike the plant Friday during Guterres’ visit to a port in Odesa in order to accuse Russia of nuclear terrorism. Both Ukraine and Russia have denied targeting the facility.
Kirillov said an emergency at the plant could see “a discharge of radioactive substances into the atmosphere and spread them hundreds of kilometers away.”
Zelenskyy, Guterres and Erdogan also discussed efforts to end the war and ongoing shipments of Ukrainian grains brokered by the U.N. and Turkey that Russia for months had blocked from being shipped across the Black Sea to other countries, including African nations facing famine. About 560,000 tons of grain have been shipped so far, the U.N. says.
(VOA)
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