Ukraine war: Zelensky urges UN must ensure security of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as Russia warns of ‘provocation’
- Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant, the biggest atomic power station in Europe
- UN and Türkiye hope summit will boost efforts toward finding a political solution in Ukraine, where a Russian invasion has been raging since February
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after talks on Thursday with visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the United Nations must ensure the security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian forces.
He said he and Guterres, meeting in the western city of Lviv, had discussed a UN-brokered deal aimed at easing a worsening global food crisis, and agreed that coordination of efforts under it to ensure Ukrainian exports should continue.
“Particular attention was paid to the topic of Russia’s nuclear blackmail at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. This deliberate terror on the part of the aggressor can have global catastrophic consequences for the whole world,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Therefore, the UN must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarisation and complete liberation from Russian troops.”
In a post on Telegram under two photos of Zelensky and Guterres meeting, the Ukrainian leader added: “We agreed to continue the coordination of the grain initiative implementation.
“We also discussed the possible directions of its development, the issue of illegal and forced deportation of Ukrainians, the release of our military personnel and doctors from captivity,” he said.
Under the July 22 framework deal brokered by Türkiye and the United Nations, Ukraine managed in early August to resume exports from its Black Sea ports, which had been stalled for five months because of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
Zelensky visited a military hospital in Lviv ahead of the talks.
The Ukrainian leader spoke with wounded soldiers and doctors in Lviv, photos released by his press service showed.
He paid tribute to the fighters as “heroes” and awarded several fighters medals.
“Russia will not win this war. Thank you for protecting the Ukrainian land,” Zelensky said, according to his Telegram channel.
Kyiv accuses Moscow, whose forces captured the nuclear plant in March, of using it as a shield from which it shells Ukrainian targets. It also says Russia has shelled the plant. Moscow says Ukraine is the one shelling the facility.
Russia said on Thursday it could shut down Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after it came under shelling at the front lines in Ukraine, a move Kyiv said would increase the risk of a nuclear catastrophe there.
Russia’s defence ministry said it redeployed three fighter jets equipped with hypersonic missiles to the exclave of Kaliningrad. Two are suspected of having violated Finnish airspace.
Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of planning a “provocation” at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on Friday during Guterres’ visit to Ukraine.
The ministry provided no evidence to back up its assertion, which was reported by Russian state-owned news agency RIA on Thursday.
Crimea ‘sabotage’ highlights Russia’s woes in Ukraine war
In a statement, Russia’s Defence Ministry said there were no Russian heavy weapons at the Russian-controlled nuclear reactor complex, or in nearby districts.
The facility, Europe’s largest atomic power plant, has come under fire repeatedly in recent weeks, with both Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for the shelling. Ukraine has said that Russia has deployed artillery in and around the plant.
The tensions around the facility have sparked fears of another nuclear disaster in Europe like the one in Chernobyl in then Soviet Ukraine in 1986.
In a briefing, Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence forces, said that in the event of an accident at the plant, radioactive material would cover Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
Nato said it was “urgent” that the UN’s atomic watchdog be allowed to inspect the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Guterres is slated to travel on Friday to Odesa, one of three ports involved in the grain exports deal – hammered out in July under the aegis of the UN with Ankara’s mediation.
He will then head to Türkiye to visit the Joint Coordination Centre, the body tasked with overseeing the accord.
According to the UN, the first half of August saw 21 freighters authorised to sail under the deal carrying more than 563,000 tonnes of agricultural products, including more than 451,000 tonnes of corn.
The first wartime shipment of UN food aid for Africa reached the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday carrying 23,000 tonnes of wheat.
Action wanes at UN to isolate Russia almost 6 months into Ukraine war
The war has forced millions to flee, killed thousands and deepened a geopolitical rift between the West and Russia, which says the aim of its operation is to demilitarise its neighbour and protect Russian-speaking communities.
A series of blasts at military bases and ammunition depots in the past week in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, has suggested a shift in the conflict, with Ukraine apparently capable of striking deeper into Russian-occupied territory.
Russia blamed saboteurs for the attacks, while Ukraine has not officially taken responsibility but has hinted at it.
03:16
Ukraine-backed forces possibly behind strikes in Russian-annexed territory
If confirmed, it would mark one of the most prominent sackings of a military official in a war in which Russia has suffered heavy losses of men and equipment.
Russia Ukraine’s general staff reported 44,100 Russian troops have died in Ukraine since Russia invaded. Russia also has lost 1,886 tanks, 4,162 armoured fighting vehicles, 792 drones and 233 aeroplanes, the staff said.
Russians pound Ukraine’s Donetsk as Kremlin mobilises for long war
Russia has been tight-lipped on the number of its soldiers killed, giving a toll of 498 soldiers killed on March 2 and updating this to 1,351 on March 25, with no more information since.
According to human rights activists, Russian prisons are actively seeking volunteers to fight in the war.
Suspects and defendants are being recruited with the promise that in exchange, the authorities will drop criminal proceedings, said Olga Romanova, a Russian civil rights activist based in Berlin, in a Facebook post, citing examples from pretrial detention centres in the Moscow area.
“But I think it has started everywhere,” said Romanova, a specialist on prisoners’ rights in Russia.
Moscow depends on volunteers as general conscription has not been introduced to fill the ranks of its armed forces fighting in Ukraine.
Russian media have been reporting on the search for volunteers in the nation’s many penal camps since July, according to Meduza website, which said Wagner mercenary group was recruiting convicts.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wanted Kremlin businessman and backer of Wagner, personally recruited volunteers in prison camps, Mediazona website reported.
The prisoners were said to have been promised monthly pay of 100,000 roubles (US$1,625) along with bonuses, payments to their families in the event of death, and an amnesty.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse and dpa
