The international community reacted strongly on Friday March 4 to the attack by Russian forces on Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant. No radioactive leak is to be deplored, but this offensive “irresponsible” is a “threat to the world”protest the Westerners.
“We survived a night that might have ended history, the history of Ukraine, the history of Europe”, solemnly declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following the assault by Russian forces once morest the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on the night of Thursday to Friday.
“The commanders of the Russian tanks knew what they were shooting at”he added, quoted by the magazine Time. “The terrorist state is now resorting to nuclear terrorism”.
Friday morning, from the source of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), it appeared that“none of the six reactors at the plant had been damaged and that there was no radioactive leak”, according to Wall Street Journal. And “both sides claimed that the Russian troops deployed in the complex did not interfere with the personnel of the plant”.
CNN talked to Petro Kotin, the boss of Energoatom, the public company that manages Ukrainian nuclear power plants. He confirms that the Russian forces “took control” of the plant, its staff and its managers, and ensures that employees are now working “with a gun to his head”.
“Security framework”
The Russian attack caused consternation, notably in the Security Council of theHIM-HER-ITmeeting urgently on Friday morning, reports The country. UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said any military operation near a nuclear power plant was “unacceptable” and “irresponsible”.
US Ambassador to theHIM-HER-ITLinda Thomas-Greenfield, for her part pointed out that “the world [avait] narrowly avoided, this morning, a nuclear catastrophe” and described the attack on the plant as“irresponsible and dangerous”. The Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, retorted once morest all evidence that the operation had been carried out by “a group of Ukrainian saboteurs” for “damaging Moscow”.
Faced with this new escalation and the concerns it arouses, Rafael Grossi, the director general of theAIEA, “issued a new plea for restraint and offered to travel to Chernobyl, the site of the plant accidentally destroyed in 1986, to negotiate with the belligerents on a ‘safety framework’”, writing The evening.
“I am aware that the logistics of this trip will be complicated, but it must be possible. It has nothing to do with the political aspect of the matter, I am not a mediator”, did he declare. Emmanuel Macron, who declared himself “extremely concerned” by Ukraine’s nuclear security, supported Rafael Grossi’s approach, like his counterparts in the G7who on Friday summoned the Russian to end her attacks “in the immediate vicinity of Ukrainian nuclear power plants”.
“Ukraine will be left on its own”
In an opinion column, the Washington Post asks himself which may have prompted Vladimir Putin to take the risk of bombing a nuclear power plant. For the American daily, it is a way for the master of the Kremlin to agitate the nuclear threat “without really fearing reprisals”.
“Western powers cannot know whether these nuclear attacks are a deliberate strategy or a tactical accident on the ground, and for that reason alone they will not be able to respond with escalation”explains the daily. “If Russian forces entered Estonia, they would face a harsh response from NATO. But not in the situation” of the attack on the Zaporizhia power plant.
In fact, NATO on Friday opposed President Zelensky, who is crying out for the establishment of a no-fly zone in Ukraine. “The only way to implement a no-fly zone is to send NATO fighter jets into Ukrainian airspace and then shoot down Russian jets to enforce it”, explained NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. This is “an unthinkable prospect” car “we might end up with an all-out war in Europe”he added.
“Calls for Help” may well be “shattering, from a frontally violent Ukraine”The message is clear, according to The weather : “beyond the sanctions taken once morest Russia and the discreet shipment of military equipment, Ukraine will be left to fend for itself”.
