President Joe Biden and leaders of the US Western allies stressed on Sunday the need for the UN nuclear watchdog to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, where continuing shelling has sparked fears of a nuclear disaster.
After the conference call Biden held with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the statement issued Sunday emphasized the importance of a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as soon as possible to ascertain the state of safety systems, reiterated the need to stop and avoid any military operations near the plant and affirmed their support for Ukraine’s continued efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression.
Previously last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during which they agreed upon parameters of IAEA’s possible mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Stressing that Moscow must immediately withdraw its troops and stop provocations and shelling from the plant, Zelenskyy noted later that the conditions of the mission were agreed upon in a legal way, via territory free from Russian troops.
Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry accused on Saturday Ukraine of poisoning its servicemen in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia after they were hospitalized with signs of serious poisoning on July 31.
Test results showed that Russian servicemen were poisoned with the neurotoxin botulinum toxin type B, and Moscow stressed that it is preparing supporting evidence with the results of all the analyzes to confirm the fact of chemical terrorism sanctioned by the regime in Kyiv, threatening to send unspecified evidence of chemical terrorism to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.