Zelenskyy: World must make Russia withdraw from Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, or else all nuclear security agreements are worthless
ALONA MAZURENKO – THURSDAY, 18 AUGUST 2022, 21:26
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is convinced that the rest of the world’s countries can ensure that Russia withdraws its troops from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Otherwise, all nuclear security agreements are worthless, he believes.
Source: Zelenskyy’s video address
Quote: "There are no real obstacles preventing the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency - ed.] mission from reaching the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Those who carry out nuclear blackmail certainly cannot be trusted with facilitating any such missions. Russia must immediately and unconditionally allow the IAEA representatives to access the plant and withdraw its troops from the territory of the plant, also immediately and unconditionally. The world has the power to ensure this happens.
If it fails to ensure this, we can simply throw the entire body of international documents on nuclear and radiation security into the trash bin. Russia is destroying the international order these are based on."
Details: President Zelenskyy also noted that today, on 18 August, he discussed the framework for a possible visit of an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia NPP with UN Secretary-General António Guterres during their meeting in Lviv. Zelenskyy assured Guterres that the IAEA mission will be able to get to the power plant "in a legal manner and via the territories that have not been captured by the occupiers".
Background:
- The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that a "large-scale provocation by the Kyiv regime" could take place at the ZNPP on 19 August during the visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Ukraine.
- On 17 August, Guterres arrived in Lviv to meet with the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey. During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Guterres discussed the situation at the ZNPP, as well as the search for a political solution to end the war with Russia.
- Earlier, the UN said that it could assist the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Zaporizhzhia from Kyiv, but Russia is insisting that any mission that will pass through Ukraine is too dangerous. On 18 August, it became known that the Director General of the IAEA will personally lead the mission to ZNPP.
- At a meeting of the UN Security Council, the United States indicated that for the sake of the security of the ZNPP, Russian troops should be withdrawn from there. Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s representative to the UN, rejected the offer to create a demilitarised zone around the ZNPP.
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