UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented on the situation at the nuclear power plant in Ukraine today. Zaporizhzhia, which has been under Russian control since March and has been the target of bombings in recent weeks. The facility is the largest in Europe and an accident could cover Germany, Poland and Slovakia with radioactive material.
We should speak of things as they are: zaporizhzhia it would be suicide.
Warns Guterres on first day of Ukraine visit
“The facility should not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhzhia as a purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the security of the region.”
Kyiv accuses Moscow of storing heavy weapons at the facility and bombing Ukrainian positions, which the Russian Defense Ministry denied.
Moscow denied Kiev’s accusations that heavy weapons were found at the facility and accused Ukraine of preparing a “provocation” during Guterres’s visit to “accuse” Russia of “creating disaster” at the facility.
But Ukrainian authorities said it was Russia that was planning a “provocation”.
Today, during his visit to the port of Odessa, Guterres also urged Russia not to disconnect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the Ukrainian power grid.
“Obviously, electricity zaporizhzhia It is Ukraine’s electricity… This principle must be fully respected,” he said.
this energy goatThe operator of Ukrainian power plants expressed concern that Moscow, which has occupied the power plant since March, will disconnect the power plant from the grid.
Image: via UN/SAVIANO ABREU/REUTERS
Guterres calls for more efforts to secure access to Ukrainian grain
Much remains to be done to ensure full global access to Ukrainian food products and Russian food and fertilizers following a UN-mediated food export agreement, the UN Secretary-General said today.
At a briefing in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, Guterres said developing countries needed help to buy these grains and called for unimpeded access to global markets for Russian food and fertilizers that are not subject to sanctions.
“This is an agreement between two parties involved in a violent conflict. It is an agreement that is unprecedented in scope and scale. But there is still a long way to go on many fronts,” he said.
“The time has come for great and generous support so that developing countries can get food from this and other ports and people can buy it,” he added.
The World Food Program (WFP) says that 345 million people in 82 countries have acute food insecurity – a record number – and nearly 50 million people in 45 countries are at risk of starvation if they do not receive humanitarian aid.
*With information from EFE and Reuters
source: Noticias
