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Kiev: Ukraine wants other countries to heed its warning that Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant to cause a radiological disaster, the president Volodymyr Zelensky He said. Members of his cabinet briefed international representatives on Thursday about the potential threat to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
In his nocturnal speech, Zelensky He said he expected other countries to “give appropriate signals and put pressure” on Moscow.
“Our principle is simple: The world must know what the occupier is preparing. Everyone who knows must act,” Zelensky said.
The world has enough power to prevent any radiological accidents, let alone a radioactive disaster.
The potential for life-threatening radiation release has been a concern since Russian forces invaded Ukraine last year and seized the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The head of the United Nations’ atomic energy agency spent months trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a safety perimeter to protect the facility as nearby areas were repeatedly bombed.
The International Atomic Energy Agency noted Thursday that “the military situation is becoming increasingly tense” as the Ukrainian counter-offensive that began this month unfolds in Zaporizhia province, where the namesake plant is located, and in an adjacent part of Donetsk province.
On Friday, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi met with the director of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom to discuss conditions at the plant.
At the meeting in Kaliningrad, Rosatom director Alexei Likhachev and other officials said “they now expect specific steps” from the UN agency to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the plant and its adjacent territory, said a statement from the Russian company whose divisions were set up. and operating nuclear power plants.
Governor of Zaporizhia, Yuri MalashkoOn Friday, it was reported that Russian bombing of the southern province killed two people in the past day.
An attack on a transport company in Kherson, the capital of the Kherson region, killed two more people on Friday, the governor of Kherson said.
Russia also fired 13 cruise missiles overnight at a military air base in the western Khmelnytskyi province, but all were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, according to the Air Force.
The attack came after Russian-appointed officials said that missiles fired by a Ukrainian damaged a bridge that serves as a key supply link to occupied regions in southern Ukraine.
The Russian Air Force said its air-launched KH-101 and Kh-555 missiles were sent from the Caspian Sea. It did not identify the target airport, but Ukraine has an air base near the town of Starokostyantiniv, Khmelnytskyi region.
The base houses fighter jets and bombers, and five years ago it hosted exercises with air force personnel from the United States, Ukraine and seven European countries. It has come under Russian attack before, including over the past month.
So far, Ukrainian forces have made only incremental gains in Zaporizhia Province, one of four regions of the country that Russian President Vladimir lives in. put it in It was illegally annexed last year. Putin pledged to defend the regions as Russian territory.
Zelensky said Ukraine was fighting to force Russian forces out of those areas and Crimea, which Moscow has been using as a staging post and supply route in the 16-month-old war.
If the counterattack is now in its infancy to break Russian defenses in the south, Ukrainian forces might try to reach a pair of occupied coastal cities on the Sea of ​​Azuz and break the Russian land bridge to Crimea.
The Ukrainian leader’s remarks on Thursday night about a possible attack on a nuclear power plant sounded a note of frustration towards “countries that pretend to be neutral until now” in the war.
He accused “whoever turns a blind eye to Russia’s occupation of such a facility” of enabling Moscow to commit an act of evil and terrorism.
“It is clear that radiation does not ask who is neutral and can reach anyone in the world. Accordingly, anyone in the world can help now, and it is absolutely clear what to do,” Zelensky said.
Russia claimed on Friday that it had been the target of “a media and propaganda campaign to discredit the country in the international arena”.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, said five people have been arrested for attempting to smuggle a kilogram of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 out of the country at the direction of a Ukrainian citizen.
The FSB said the material would be used “to stage scenes of the use of weapons of mass destruction”. Cesium-137 is often mentioned as a potential use in making a “dirty bomb” that could contaminate a wide area.
In his nocturnal speech, Zelensky He said he expected other countries to “give appropriate signals and put pressure” on Moscow.
“Our principle is simple: The world must know what the occupier is preparing. Everyone who knows must act,” Zelensky said.
The world has enough power to prevent any radiological accidents, let alone a radioactive disaster.
The potential for life-threatening radiation release has been a concern since Russian forces invaded Ukraine last year and seized the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The head of the United Nations’ atomic energy agency spent months trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a safety perimeter to protect the facility as nearby areas were repeatedly bombed.
The International Atomic Energy Agency noted Thursday that “the military situation is becoming increasingly tense” as the Ukrainian counter-offensive that began this month unfolds in Zaporizhia province, where the namesake plant is located, and in an adjacent part of Donetsk province.
On Friday, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi met with the director of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom to discuss conditions at the plant.
At the meeting in Kaliningrad, Rosatom director Alexei Likhachev and other officials said “they now expect specific steps” from the UN agency to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the plant and its adjacent territory, said a statement from the Russian company whose divisions were set up. and operating nuclear power plants.
Governor of Zaporizhia, Yuri MalashkoOn Friday, it was reported that Russian bombing of the southern province killed two people in the past day.
An attack on a transport company in Kherson, the capital of the Kherson region, killed two more people on Friday, the governor of Kherson said.
Russia also fired 13 cruise missiles overnight at a military air base in the western Khmelnytskyi province, but all were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, according to the Air Force.
The attack came after Russian-appointed officials said that missiles fired by a Ukrainian damaged a bridge that serves as a key supply link to occupied regions in southern Ukraine.
The Russian Air Force said its air-launched KH-101 and Kh-555 missiles were sent from the Caspian Sea. It did not identify the target airport, but Ukraine has an air base near the town of Starokostyantiniv, Khmelnytskyi region.
The base houses fighter jets and bombers, and five years ago it hosted exercises with air force personnel from the United States, Ukraine and seven European countries. It has come under Russian attack before, including over the past month.
So far, Ukrainian forces have made only incremental gains in Zaporizhia Province, one of four regions of the country that Russian President Vladimir lives in. put it in It was illegally annexed last year. Putin pledged to defend the regions as Russian territory.
Zelensky said Ukraine was fighting to force Russian forces out of those areas and Crimea, which Moscow has been using as a staging post and supply route in the 16-month-old war.
If the counterattack is now in its infancy to break Russian defenses in the south, Ukrainian forces might try to reach a pair of occupied coastal cities on the Sea of ​​Azuz and break the Russian land bridge to Crimea.
The Ukrainian leader’s remarks on Thursday night about a possible attack on a nuclear power plant sounded a note of frustration towards “countries that pretend to be neutral until now” in the war.
He accused “whoever turns a blind eye to Russia’s occupation of such a facility” of enabling Moscow to commit an act of evil and terrorism.
“It is clear that radiation does not ask who is neutral and can reach anyone in the world. Accordingly, anyone in the world can help now, and it is absolutely clear what to do,” Zelensky said.
Russia claimed on Friday that it had been the target of “a media and propaganda campaign to discredit the country in the international arena”.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, said five people have been arrested for attempting to smuggle a kilogram of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 out of the country at the direction of a Ukrainian citizen.
The FSB said the material would be used “to stage scenes of the use of weapons of mass destruction”. Cesium-137 is often mentioned as a potential use in making a “dirty bomb” that could contaminate a wide area.
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