Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant soon after it invaded Ukraine on February 24, has said it could shut down the facility — a move Kyiv says will increase the risk of a nuclear disaster. Guterres, speaking to reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said military equipment and personnel should be withdrawn from the plant. “The facility should not be used as part of a military operation. Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the region’s security,” he said. SEE l The possibility of a major disaster in Zaporizhia: UN envoy:
Ukraine nuclear plant bombing raises fears of health and environmental threats
The UN is urging inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to be allowed access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to check for radioactive leaks after the site came under fire again at the weekend. Moscow had earlier dismissed international calls for a demilitarized zone around the plant, which is still operated by Ukrainian engineers under Russian occupation, as “unacceptable”. The power station is located on the southern bank of a huge reservoir controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces hold the northern bank. In recent days there have been several incidents of shelling at the factory, for which both sides blame each other. A man looks out from a section of a building in Kharkiv on Thursday, after a rocket attack. (Andrii Marienko/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, on the battlefield, at least 17 people were killed and 42 wounded in a fierce Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Ukrainian authorities said. The Russian military claimed it struck a foreign mercenary base in Kharkiv, killing 90. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side. Debris is seen in a residential block of a tram depot hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters) In the latest in a series of incidents on Russian soil near the border with Ukraine, an ammunition dump caught fire in the Belgorod region, the governor said. No casualties were reported. Escalating international tensions, Russia has deployed warplanes carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, an enclave surrounded by two NATO countries, Lithuania and Poland.
Ukraine says Russia is using plant as shield
Ukraine also accuses Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia plant as a shield for its forces to launch strikes across the reservoir on Ukrainian-controlled cities, which Moscow denies. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, speaks with Lyiv University rector Volodymyr Melnyk in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images) Reuters cannot independently confirm the military situation there or who is responsible for the bombings. Zelensky said after meeting with Guterres on Thursday that they had agreed on parameters for a possible International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant. “Russia should immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as stop all provocations and shelling,” he said. Earlier, he accused Russia of “nuclear blackmail”. In Moscow, the defense ministry said Russia could shut down the plant if it came under further attack. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of planning to shut down the plant to cut it off Ukraine’s electricity grid and transfer it to Russia’s — effectively stealing its output.
Shutdown would pose risks: energy company
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company Energoatom said closing the plant would increase the risk of “a radiation disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.” Disconnecting the complex’s generators from Ukraine’s electricity system would prevent their use to keep nuclear fuel cool in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a selfie with a wounded soldier at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Presidential Press Service of Ukraine/Reuters) Shutting down a nuclear power plant is a complex operation that requires stopping nuclear chain reactions while protecting the fuel from heating up and causing a meltdown. “Russia must take steps to compel [the plant] out of Ukraine’s electricity system, which could threaten the plant’s operational security, in addition to escalating Ukraine’s energy crisis in the winter,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International, told Reuters Peace. E-MAIL. The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s main intelligence service accused the other side of planning some kind of incident at the nuclear plant as a “provocation” to take place during Guterres’ visit.
The Turkish president and the head of the United Nations discuss paths to end the conflict
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended talks with Guterres and Zelensky in Lviv, saying afterwards that they discussed ways to end the conflict. A firefighter stands in front of a damaged hostel as a result of a rocket attack in Kharkiv late Wednesday night. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) Erdogan said they talked about using the positive atmosphere created by a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that lifted a Russian embargo on Ukrainian grain exports to revive peace talks held in Istanbul in March. NATO member Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, a major trading partner, and has tried to mediate the six-month conflict. “Personally, I maintain my belief that the war will finally end at the negotiating table. Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Guterres share the same view on this,” Erdogan said. He also said they discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia and that he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relatives of Ukrainian troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol under a UN-backed deal demonstrated during Guterres’ visit calling for more efforts to protect them. Demonstrators hold placards in support of Ukrainian troops captured by Russian forces, during Thursday’s visit to Lviv by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) Dozens of Azovstal prisoners died in the custody of Russian-backed separatists last month in a fiery explosion at a prison. Kyiv called it a massacre and a war crime. Moscow accused Ukraine of hitting the prison with rockets, although it offered no explanation as to why no guards were injured. After months in which Russian forces made modest territorial gains in heavy fighting in the east, the front lines in Ukraine have been relatively static in recent weeks. Kyiv says it is preparing for a counteroffensive to retake a swath of southern territory, including Kherson province and neighboring Zaporizhzhia, where the nuclear power plant is located.
title: “Un Chief Meets Zelensky In Ukraine Expresses Concerns Over Russian Owned Nuclear Plant Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-08” author: “Charles Desrosiers”
Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant soon after it invaded Ukraine on February 24, has said it could shut down the facility — a move Kyiv says will increase the risk of a nuclear disaster. Guterres, speaking to reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said military equipment and personnel should be withdrawn from the plant. “The facility should not be used as part of a military operation. Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the region’s security,” he said. SEE l The possibility of a major disaster in Zaporizhia: UN envoy:
Ukraine nuclear plant bombing raises fears of health and environmental threats
The UN is urging inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to be allowed access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to check for radioactive leaks after the site came under fire again at the weekend. Moscow had earlier dismissed international calls for a demilitarized zone around the plant, which is still operated by Ukrainian engineers under Russian occupation, as “unacceptable”. The power station is located on the southern bank of a huge reservoir controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces hold the northern bank. In recent days there have been several incidents of shelling at the factory, for which both sides blame each other. A man looks out from a section of a building in Kharkiv on Thursday, after a rocket attack. (Andrii Marienko/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, on the battlefield, at least 17 people were killed and 42 wounded in a fierce Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Ukrainian authorities said. The Russian military claimed it struck a foreign mercenary base in Kharkiv, killing 90. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side. Debris is seen in a residential block of a tram depot hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters) In the latest in a series of incidents on Russian soil near the border with Ukraine, an ammunition dump caught fire in the Belgorod region, the governor said. No casualties were reported. Escalating international tensions, Russia has deployed warplanes carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, an enclave surrounded by two NATO countries, Lithuania and Poland.
Ukraine says Russia is using plant as shield
Ukraine also accuses Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia plant as a shield for its forces to launch strikes across the reservoir on Ukrainian-controlled cities, which Moscow denies. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, speaks with Lyiv University rector Volodymyr Melnyk in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images) Reuters cannot independently confirm the military situation there or who is responsible for the bombings. Zelensky said after meeting with Guterres on Thursday that they had agreed on parameters for a possible International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant. “Russia should immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as stop all provocations and shelling,” he said. Earlier, he accused Russia of “nuclear blackmail”. In Moscow, the defense ministry said Russia could shut down the plant if it came under further attack. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of planning to shut down the plant to cut it off Ukraine’s electricity grid and transfer it to Russia’s — effectively stealing its output.
Shutdown would pose risks: energy company
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company Energoatom said closing the plant would increase the risk of “a radiation disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.” Disconnecting the complex’s generators from Ukraine’s electricity system would prevent their use to keep nuclear fuel cool in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a selfie with a wounded soldier at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Presidential Press Service of Ukraine/Reuters) Shutting down a nuclear power plant is a complex operation that requires stopping nuclear chain reactions while protecting the fuel from heating up and causing a meltdown. “Russia must take steps to compel [the plant] out of Ukraine’s electricity system, which could threaten the plant’s operational security, in addition to escalating Ukraine’s energy crisis in the winter,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International, told Reuters Peace. E-MAIL. The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s main intelligence service accused the other side of planning some kind of incident at the nuclear plant as a “provocation” to take place during Guterres’ visit.
The Turkish president and the head of the United Nations discuss paths to end the conflict
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended talks with Guterres and Zelensky in Lviv, saying afterwards that they discussed ways to end the conflict. A firefighter stands in front of a damaged hostel as a result of a rocket attack in Kharkiv late Wednesday night. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) Erdogan said they talked about using the positive atmosphere created by a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that lifted a Russian embargo on Ukrainian grain exports to revive peace talks held in Istanbul in March. NATO member Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, a major trading partner, and has tried to mediate the six-month conflict. “Personally, I maintain my belief that the war will finally end at the negotiating table. Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Guterres share the same view on this,” Erdogan said. He also said they discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia and that he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relatives of Ukrainian troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol under a UN-backed deal demonstrated during Guterres’ visit calling for more efforts to protect them. Demonstrators hold placards in support of Ukrainian troops captured by Russian forces, during Thursday’s visit to Lviv by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) Dozens of Azovstal prisoners died in the custody of Russian-backed separatists last month in a fiery explosion at a prison. Kyiv called it a massacre and a war crime. Moscow accused Ukraine of hitting the prison with rockets, although it offered no explanation as to why no guards were injured. After months in which Russian forces made modest territorial gains in heavy fighting in the east, the front lines in Ukraine have been relatively static in recent weeks. Kyiv says it is preparing for a counteroffensive to retake a swath of southern territory, including Kherson province and neighboring Zaporizhzhia, where the nuclear power plant is located.
title: “Un Chief Meets Zelensky In Ukraine Expresses Concerns Over Russian Owned Nuclear Plant Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-26” author: “Bethel Sansburn”
Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant soon after it invaded Ukraine on February 24, has said it could shut down the facility — a move Kyiv says will increase the risk of a nuclear disaster. Guterres, speaking to reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said military equipment and personnel should be withdrawn from the plant. “The facility should not be used as part of a military operation. Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the region’s security,” he said. SEE l The possibility of a major disaster in Zaporizhia: UN envoy:
Ukraine nuclear plant bombing raises fears of health and environmental threats
The UN is urging inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to be allowed access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to check for radioactive leaks after the site came under fire again at the weekend. Moscow had earlier dismissed international calls for a demilitarized zone around the plant, which is still operated by Ukrainian engineers under Russian occupation, as “unacceptable”. The power station is located on the southern bank of a huge reservoir controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces hold the northern bank. In recent days there have been several incidents of shelling at the factory, for which both sides blame each other. A man looks out from a section of a building in Kharkiv on Thursday, after a rocket attack. (Andrii Marienko/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, on the battlefield, at least 17 people were killed and 42 wounded in a fierce Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Ukrainian authorities said. The Russian military claimed it struck a foreign mercenary base in Kharkiv, killing 90. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side. Debris is seen in a residential block of a tram depot hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters) In the latest in a series of incidents on Russian soil near the border with Ukraine, an ammunition dump caught fire in the Belgorod region, the governor said. No casualties were reported. Escalating international tensions, Russia has deployed warplanes carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, an enclave surrounded by two NATO countries, Lithuania and Poland.
Ukraine says Russia is using plant as shield
Ukraine also accuses Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia plant as a shield for its forces to launch strikes across the reservoir on Ukrainian-controlled cities, which Moscow denies. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, speaks with Lyiv University rector Volodymyr Melnyk in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images) Reuters cannot independently confirm the military situation there or who is responsible for the bombings. Zelensky said after meeting with Guterres on Thursday that they had agreed on parameters for a possible International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant. “Russia should immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as stop all provocations and shelling,” he said. Earlier, he accused Russia of “nuclear blackmail”. In Moscow, the defense ministry said Russia could shut down the plant if it came under further attack. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of planning to shut down the plant to cut it off Ukraine’s electricity grid and transfer it to Russia’s — effectively stealing its output.
Shutdown would pose risks: energy company
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company Energoatom said closing the plant would increase the risk of “a radiation disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.” Disconnecting the complex’s generators from Ukraine’s electricity system would prevent their use to keep nuclear fuel cool in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a selfie with a wounded soldier at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Presidential Press Service of Ukraine/Reuters) Shutting down a nuclear power plant is a complex operation that requires stopping nuclear chain reactions while protecting the fuel from heating up and causing a meltdown. “Russia must take steps to compel [the plant] out of Ukraine’s electricity system, which could threaten the plant’s operational security, in addition to escalating Ukraine’s energy crisis in the winter,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International, told Reuters Peace. E-MAIL. The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s main intelligence service accused the other side of planning some kind of incident at the nuclear plant as a “provocation” to take place during Guterres’ visit.
The Turkish president and the head of the United Nations discuss paths to end the conflict
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended talks with Guterres and Zelensky in Lviv, saying afterwards that they discussed ways to end the conflict. A firefighter stands in front of a damaged hostel as a result of a rocket attack in Kharkiv late Wednesday night. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) Erdogan said they talked about using the positive atmosphere created by a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that lifted a Russian embargo on Ukrainian grain exports to revive peace talks held in Istanbul in March. NATO member Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, a major trading partner, and has tried to mediate the six-month conflict. “Personally, I maintain my belief that the war will finally end at the negotiating table. Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Guterres share the same view on this,” Erdogan said. He also said they discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia and that he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relatives of Ukrainian troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol under a UN-backed deal demonstrated during Guterres’ visit calling for more efforts to protect them. Demonstrators hold placards in support of Ukrainian troops captured by Russian forces, during Thursday’s visit to Lviv by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) Dozens of Azovstal prisoners died in the custody of Russian-backed separatists last month in a fiery explosion at a prison. Kyiv called it a massacre and a war crime. Moscow accused Ukraine of hitting the prison with rockets, although it offered no explanation as to why no guards were injured. After months in which Russian forces made modest territorial gains in heavy fighting in the east, the front lines in Ukraine have been relatively static in recent weeks. Kyiv says it is preparing for a counteroffensive to retake a swath of southern territory, including Kherson province and neighboring Zaporizhzhia, where the nuclear power plant is located.
title: “Un Chief Meets Zelensky In Ukraine Expresses Concerns Over Russian Owned Nuclear Plant Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-20” author: “Joseph Foley”
Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant soon after it invaded Ukraine on February 24, has said it could shut down the facility — a move Kyiv says will increase the risk of a nuclear disaster. Guterres, speaking to reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said military equipment and personnel should be withdrawn from the plant. “The facility should not be used as part of a military operation. Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the region’s security,” he said. SEE l The possibility of a major disaster in Zaporizhia: UN envoy:
Ukraine nuclear plant bombing raises fears of health and environmental threats
The UN is urging inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to be allowed access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to check for radioactive leaks after the site came under fire again at the weekend. Moscow had earlier dismissed international calls for a demilitarized zone around the plant, which is still operated by Ukrainian engineers under Russian occupation, as “unacceptable”. The power station is located on the southern bank of a huge reservoir controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces hold the northern bank. In recent days there have been several incidents of shelling at the factory, for which both sides blame each other. A man looks out from a section of a building in Kharkiv on Thursday, after a rocket attack. (Andrii Marienko/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, on the battlefield, at least 17 people were killed and 42 wounded in a fierce Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Ukrainian authorities said. The Russian military claimed it struck a foreign mercenary base in Kharkiv, killing 90. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side. Debris is seen in a residential block of a tram depot hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters) In the latest in a series of incidents on Russian soil near the border with Ukraine, an ammunition dump caught fire in the Belgorod region, the governor said. No casualties were reported. Escalating international tensions, Russia has deployed warplanes carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, an enclave surrounded by two NATO countries, Lithuania and Poland.
Ukraine says Russia is using plant as shield
Ukraine also accuses Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia plant as a shield for its forces to launch strikes across the reservoir on Ukrainian-controlled cities, which Moscow denies. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, speaks with Lyiv University rector Volodymyr Melnyk in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images) Reuters cannot independently confirm the military situation there or who is responsible for the bombings. Zelensky said after meeting with Guterres on Thursday that they had agreed on parameters for a possible International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant. “Russia should immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as stop all provocations and shelling,” he said. Earlier, he accused Russia of “nuclear blackmail”. In Moscow, the defense ministry said Russia could shut down the plant if it came under further attack. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of planning to shut down the plant to cut it off Ukraine’s electricity grid and transfer it to Russia’s — effectively stealing its output.
Shutdown would pose risks: energy company
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company Energoatom said closing the plant would increase the risk of “a radiation disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.” Disconnecting the complex’s generators from Ukraine’s electricity system would prevent their use to keep nuclear fuel cool in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a selfie with a wounded soldier at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Presidential Press Service of Ukraine/Reuters) Shutting down a nuclear power plant is a complex operation that requires stopping nuclear chain reactions while protecting the fuel from heating up and causing a meltdown. “Russia must take steps to compel [the plant] out of Ukraine’s electricity system, which could threaten the plant’s operational security, in addition to escalating Ukraine’s energy crisis in the winter,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International, told Reuters Peace. E-MAIL. The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s main intelligence service accused the other side of planning some kind of incident at the nuclear plant as a “provocation” to take place during Guterres’ visit.
The Turkish president and the head of the United Nations discuss paths to end the conflict
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended talks with Guterres and Zelensky in Lviv, saying afterwards that they discussed ways to end the conflict. A firefighter stands in front of a damaged hostel as a result of a rocket attack in Kharkiv late Wednesday night. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) Erdogan said they talked about using the positive atmosphere created by a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that lifted a Russian embargo on Ukrainian grain exports to revive peace talks held in Istanbul in March. NATO member Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, a major trading partner, and has tried to mediate the six-month conflict. “Personally, I maintain my belief that the war will finally end at the negotiating table. Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Guterres share the same view on this,” Erdogan said. He also said they discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia and that he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relatives of Ukrainian troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol under a UN-backed deal demonstrated during Guterres’ visit calling for more efforts to protect them. Demonstrators hold placards in support of Ukrainian troops captured by Russian forces, during Thursday’s visit to Lviv by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) Dozens of Azovstal prisoners died in the custody of Russian-backed separatists last month in a fiery explosion at a prison. Kyiv called it a massacre and a war crime. Moscow accused Ukraine of hitting the prison with rockets, although it offered no explanation as to why no guards were injured. After months in which Russian forces made modest territorial gains in heavy fighting in the east, the front lines in Ukraine have been relatively static in recent weeks. Kyiv says it is preparing for a counteroffensive to retake a swath of southern territory, including Kherson province and neighboring Zaporizhzhia, where the nuclear power plant is located.
title: “Un Chief Meets Zelensky In Ukraine Expresses Concerns Over Russian Owned Nuclear Plant Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-14” author: “Lee Medina”
Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant soon after it invaded Ukraine on February 24, has said it could shut down the facility — a move Kyiv says will increase the risk of a nuclear disaster. Guterres, speaking to reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said military equipment and personnel should be withdrawn from the plant. “The facility should not be used as part of a military operation. Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the region’s security,” he said. SEE l The possibility of a major disaster in Zaporizhia: UN envoy:
Ukraine nuclear plant bombing raises fears of health and environmental threats
The UN is urging inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to be allowed access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to check for radioactive leaks after the site came under fire again at the weekend. Moscow had earlier dismissed international calls for a demilitarized zone around the plant, which is still operated by Ukrainian engineers under Russian occupation, as “unacceptable”. The power station is located on the southern bank of a huge reservoir controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces hold the northern bank. In recent days there have been several incidents of shelling at the factory, for which both sides blame each other. A man looks out from a section of a building in Kharkiv on Thursday, after a rocket attack. (Andrii Marienko/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, on the battlefield, at least 17 people were killed and 42 wounded in a fierce Russian missile attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Ukrainian authorities said. The Russian military claimed it struck a foreign mercenary base in Kharkiv, killing 90. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side. Debris is seen in a residential block of a tram depot hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters) In the latest in a series of incidents on Russian soil near the border with Ukraine, an ammunition dump caught fire in the Belgorod region, the governor said. No casualties were reported. Escalating international tensions, Russia has deployed warplanes carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, an enclave surrounded by two NATO countries, Lithuania and Poland.
Ukraine says Russia is using plant as shield
Ukraine also accuses Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia plant as a shield for its forces to launch strikes across the reservoir on Ukrainian-controlled cities, which Moscow denies. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, speaks with Lyiv University rector Volodymyr Melnyk in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images) Reuters cannot independently confirm the military situation there or who is responsible for the bombings. Zelensky said after meeting with Guterres on Thursday that they had agreed on parameters for a possible International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant. “Russia should immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as stop all provocations and shelling,” he said. Earlier, he accused Russia of “nuclear blackmail”. In Moscow, the defense ministry said Russia could shut down the plant if it came under further attack. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of planning to shut down the plant to cut it off Ukraine’s electricity grid and transfer it to Russia’s — effectively stealing its output.
Shutdown would pose risks: energy company
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company Energoatom said closing the plant would increase the risk of “a radiation disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.” Disconnecting the complex’s generators from Ukraine’s electricity system would prevent their use to keep nuclear fuel cool in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a selfie with a wounded soldier at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Presidential Press Service of Ukraine/Reuters) Shutting down a nuclear power plant is a complex operation that requires stopping nuclear chain reactions while protecting the fuel from heating up and causing a meltdown. “Russia must take steps to compel [the plant] out of Ukraine’s electricity system, which could threaten the plant’s operational security, in addition to escalating Ukraine’s energy crisis in the winter,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International, told Reuters Peace. E-MAIL. The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s main intelligence service accused the other side of planning some kind of incident at the nuclear plant as a “provocation” to take place during Guterres’ visit.
The Turkish president and the head of the United Nations discuss paths to end the conflict
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended talks with Guterres and Zelensky in Lviv, saying afterwards that they discussed ways to end the conflict. A firefighter stands in front of a damaged hostel as a result of a rocket attack in Kharkiv late Wednesday night. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) Erdogan said they talked about using the positive atmosphere created by a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that lifted a Russian embargo on Ukrainian grain exports to revive peace talks held in Istanbul in March. NATO member Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, a major trading partner, and has tried to mediate the six-month conflict. “Personally, I maintain my belief that the war will finally end at the negotiating table. Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Guterres share the same view on this,” Erdogan said. He also said they discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia and that he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relatives of Ukrainian troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol under a UN-backed deal demonstrated during Guterres’ visit calling for more efforts to protect them. Demonstrators hold placards in support of Ukrainian troops captured by Russian forces, during Thursday’s visit to Lviv by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) Dozens of Azovstal prisoners died in the custody of Russian-backed separatists last month in a fiery explosion at a prison. Kyiv called it a massacre and a war crime. Moscow accused Ukraine of hitting the prison with rockets, although it offered no explanation as to why no guards were injured. After months in which Russian forces made modest territorial gains in heavy fighting in the east, the front lines in Ukraine have been relatively static in recent weeks. Kyiv says it is preparing for a counteroffensive to retake a swath of southern territory, including Kherson province and neighboring Zaporizhzhia, where the nuclear power plant is located.
