UN demands russia withdraw from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine

Reuters

Michelle Nichols

Thu, July 11, 2024

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday demanded that russia “urgently withdraw its military and other unauthorized personnel” from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and return it to the full control of Ukrainian authorities.

the 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution with 99 votes in favor 9 against and 60 abstentions.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, was captured by russia shortly after it launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is shut down but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.

Speaking before the vote, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya Ernest countries to vote in favor of the resolution, saying: “We owe this to future generations. We must ensure that the horrors of nuclear disasters are not repeated.”

Throughout the war, Ukraine and russia have accused each other of shelling the plant and putting down power lines. Ukraine has dismissed russian accusations, saying it was not attacking nuclear facilities.

The U.N. resolution “calls for immediate cessation of the attacks by the russian federation against critical energy infrastructure of Ukraine, which increase the risk of a nuclear accident or incident at all nuclear facilities of Ukraine.”

He held up in the General Assembly what he said was a wreckage of a Ukrainian drone that had been used to attack the Zaporizhzhia power plant on April 7. Ukraine has denied it was behind the Drone attacks that Polyanskiy referenced.

russia was diplomatically isolated several times during the first year of the war when almost 3/4 of the General Assembly repeatedly voted to denounce moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and demand it withdraw its troops.

The General Assembly has been the focus for U.N. action on Ukraine because the 15-member Security Council has been paralyzed by russia which holds a veto power along with the United States, China, France, and Britain.

The Security Council has just held dozens of meetings on Ukraine.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Deepa Babington)

https://news.yahoo.com/news/un-demands-russia-withdraw-europes-213832869.html