Zelenskyy warns of nuclear risk, urges countries to accept his peace plan

Mr. Zelenskyy also suggests his plan for peace was the way forward as resolving the war at the U.N. was “impossible” because of Russia’s veto power at the Security Council

Addressing the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of the risk of a nuclear accident with Russia’s continued occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant.

Mr. Zelenskyy also suggested his plan for peace was the way forward as resolving the war at the U.N. was “impossible” because of Russia’s veto power at the Security Council.

He reminded the 193-member UNGA that it had passed a resolution (99 in favour, 9 against, 60 abstentions, including India) in July calling on Russia to return control of all nuclear facilities, particularly the plant in Zaporizhzhia, to the Ukrainian authorities.

“Radiation will not respect state borders,” he said, warning that, like smoke fires, the fallout from any radioactive incident could spread across Europe and possibly farther afield.

Mr. Zelenskyy told the UNGA that Russia was against his peace proposal, first presented at the G-20 Summit in Indonesia in November 2022, and the peace conference in Switzerland, because in these formulations “all were equal” and no single country could control the process. He warned that the U.N. was not capable of bringing peace because of Security Council vetoes.

The Ukrainian 10-point peace proposal involves Russia withdrawing completely from Ukraine, including from Crimea, and the restoration of the pre-2014 Russia-Ukraine borders, nuclear safety, food and energy security and accountability for war crimes, among other things.

“When the aggressor exercise veto power, the U.N. is powerless to stop the war,” he said, presenting the Ukrainian peace plan as a viable way forward. He said “half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles” ignored reality and gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the political space to continue fighting.

He named Brazil and China as possibly having vested interests in coming up with alternative proposals to settle the war. The two countries had come up with a proposal in May to reduce tensions but without requiring Russia to withdraw. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva mentioned the plan during his UNGA speech on Tuesday (September 24, 2024).

“When the Chinese-Brazilian duo tries to grow into a choir of voices with someone in Europe, with someone in Africa saying something alternative to a full and just peace, the question arises, what is the true interest?” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

Without naming anyone, he suggested that world leaders who could effect peace were not doing so, hoping for personal recognition. “The peace formula has already existed for two years, and maybe somebody wants a Nobel Prize for their political biography, for frozen truce instead of real peace, but the only prizes Putin will give you in return are more suffering and disasters.”

“War always poses a threat to many,” he said, adding, “ but the deepest understanding of war is found in the homes it destroys.” He listed a number of countries, whose leaders he had met, including India, and said that every one of them understood the need for a “real, just peace”.

Mr. Zelenskyy had bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening in New York. India had been conveying information between the two warring parties in the hope that it would hasten peace, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday (September 24, 2024).

Published - September 25, 2024 10:08 pm IST