Ukraine’s Zelenskiy: U.N. must ensure security of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Reuters:

LVIV, Ukraine, Aug 18 – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after talks on Thursday with visiting U.N. 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 U.N.-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,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Therefore, the U.N. must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarization and complete liberation from Russian troops.”

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.