UN chief warns of dangerous situation concerning Ukraine nuke plant

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned of the dangerous situation in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

"I remain gravely concerned about the situation in and around Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. The warning lights are flashing," he told the UN Security Council.

"Any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant are simply unacceptable. Any further escalation of the situation could lead to self-destruction," Guterres said.

The security of the plant must be ensured and the plant must be re-established as purely civilian infrastructure, he said.

In her briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday, UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said Zaporizhzhia continues to be operated by Ukrainian technical personnel but has been under the control of Russian military forces since early March. In early August, disturbing reports of an escalation of shelling around the plant began to emerge.

Guterres expressed the hope that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could send a mission to Zaporizhzhia as soon as possible.

"In close contact with the IAEA, the UN Secretariat has assessed that we have in Ukraine the logistics and security capacity to support any IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from Kiev, provided both Russia and Ukraine agree," he said.

Work is also ongoing to deploy the recently established UN fact-finding mission to look into the July 29 attack on a prison in Olenivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine that reportedly killed dozens of prisoners of war, said Guterres.

This mission must be able to freely conduct its work and to find the facts. It is imperative that the mission has safe, secure and unfettered access to all relevant places and persons and to all relevant evidence without any limitation, impediment or interference, he said.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of carrying out the fatal attack on the prison.

Guterres also briefed the Security Council on his recent visit to Ukraine.

The visit was an important opportunity to follow up on the landmark deal on the export of Ukraine grain via the Black Sea, he said. "I can report to the council that the Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in Istanbul in July, is progressing well."

Guterres stressed the importance of unimpeded access to global markets of Russian food and fertilizers, as part of the Istanbul package deal, adding that it is critical that all governments and the private sector cooperate to effectively bring them to market.

"Getting much more food and fertilizers out of Ukraine and Russia at reasonable costs is vital to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers," he said.