Status: 08/18/2022 8:53 p.m
The shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was the central topic of the summit of UN chief Guterres with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Turkish President Erdogan. Despite appeals, Moscow continues to refuse to demilitarize the nuclear power plant.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have warned of a nuclear catastrophe following the shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. “We’re worried. We don’t want another Chernobyl,” Erdogan said after a meeting with Guterres and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
He was referring to the reactor accident in 1986. The repeated shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine – for which Ukraine and Russia blame each other – has been fueling fears of a nuclear incident for days.
Guterres: Any damage is ‘suicide’
Guterres said in Lviv that he was “very concerned” about the situation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. He again called for a demilitarization of the power plant. The facility should not be used for military operations, Guterres said. “Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporozhye as a purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the security of the area.” Any possible damage to the nuclear power plant is “suicide”.
Erdogan announced that Turkey would continue its “efforts to find a solution” to the conflict. Turkey remains “at the side of our Ukrainian friends,” he stressed. The Turkish head of state has given himself the role of mediator in the Ukraine conflict. In July, his government, together with the UN, brokered agreements to resume grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Details of an IAEA inspection agreed
According to the website of his presidential office, Zelenskyy agreed with Guterres on details of how an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could take place at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It was initially unclear whether the Kremlin would agree to the proposed conditions.
Russia had previously rejected United Nations proposals to demilitarize the zone around the occupied nuclear power plant. That is unacceptable because it makes the facility even more vulnerable to attacks, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said in Moscow. Rather, Russia expects experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the nuclear power plant “very soon”.
Such a mission has been planned for a long time. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the IAEA can convince itself that Russia is only responsible for the safety of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Most recently, the United Nations had rejected allegations by Moscow that the UN had prevented an IAEA mission.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the nuclear power plant. Both sides declared that the respective opponent was planning an attack and then wanted to blame the other for the consequences. Russian troops have occupied the power plant since March, but Ukrainian technicians continue to operate it.
Reconnaissance mission after prison attack
Guterres also announced a reconnaissance mission following the attack on a camp housing Ukrainian POWs in late July. Brazilian General Carlos dos Santos Cruz is said to be in charge of the operation. “We will now continue to work to obtain the necessary assurances to ensure safe access to the site and all other relevant locations,” said the UN Secretary-General.
After the death of around 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Olenivka prison near Donetsk at the end of July, Ukraine had requested access by independent international experts in order to clarify the case. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of being responsible for the deaths of the prisoners.
Topic overview
war in Ukraine