The 77th UN General Assembly meeting opened its high-level General Debate on 20 September, 2022 with the war in Ukraine top on the agenda.
The US and its allies condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine but, failed to win a unanimous condemnation of Russia for the war.
Before, the UN Security Council met on 6 September, 2022 to discuss the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report on the situation in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In the 52-page report, the IAEA asked for a safety zone around the nuclear power plant and cessation of hostilities there.
It will be interesting to know if the UN will send a peace-keeping force to enforce the safety zone.
The IAEA condemned military attacks near the plant but, stopped short of blaming Russia or Ukraine for them.
Some vehicles belonging to the Russian military were seen by the premises of the plant and the IAEA wants all military equipment near or within the perimeter of the nuclear power plant removed.
Can motor vehicles be classified as military equipment?
Russia says it does not have any military equipment in, or near, the plant.
The report also praised the Ukrainian technicians still operating the plant in difficult working conditions.
The IAEA committed itself to working with all stakeholders to maintain the safety, security and safeguard of the nuclear power plant.
An IAEA inspection team led by the Director-General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, arrived the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on 1 September, 2022.
The nine-member team that departed their headquarters in Vienna on 29 August, 2022 and arrived Ukraine the following day, drove in a convoy with UN-marked vehicles to the plant.
They slowly passed Ukrainian and Russian checkpoints and even once, escaped a shelling attack on the pre-agreed route.
They say they plan to stay for some time to stabilise the plant.
Six IAEA staff stayed behind while Grossi left to prepare a report on the inspection.
After a few days, two IAEA members of staff remained permanently in the plant.
Only one of the six nuclear reactors was working in a system Grossi said, has been badly compromised by the fighting.
The IAEA boss on 25 August, 2022 had said that his team will visit the beleaguered nuclear power plant “in the next few days.”
Shortly, after his visit, the electricity from the plant was switched off as fire from the fighting damaged the electric poles evacuating the power it produces.
This does not make the plant safer as water has to be pumped continuously to cool the reactors from residual heat and the pumps had to be powered by diesel generators.
The plant had only five days of diesel supply in its store.
On 16 September, 2022 Ukraine’s nuclear power agency, Energoatom, was allowed to bring in 25 trucks of diesel and spare parts for the plant.
The power line was reconnected the following day and one reactor was put back in service.
Another problem is that winter is coming and the plant provides electricity to five million homes in Ukraine.
The shutdown of the plant is as if to stultify the efforts of the UN and IAEA.
The UN Security Council met, for the second time, on the situation in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on 23 August, 2022 at the request of Russia.
Both Russia and Ukraine expressed their desire for an urgent visit to the plant by the IAEA.
At the request of Russia, an emergency UN Security Council meeting was earlier, held on the situation in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on 11 August, 2022.
Both Russia and Ukraine were asked to cease hostilities while the IAEA was mandated to visit the site as soon as possible.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, visited Ukraine on 17 August, 2022 with the hope of finding an urgent solution to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
He was joined in the peace mission the following day by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and they met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Ukraine’s President agreed to the UN parameters for an IAEA visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The parameters include cessation of hostilities, de-militarisation of the nuclear power plant and an agreement that the electricity it produces belongs to Ukraine.
Guterres called for “common sense” in resolving the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Russia had asked for a clarification of the UN scribe’s definition of “de-militarisation” of the nuclear power plant.
Due to a conflict in schedule of events, Guterres was not at that emergency Security Council meeting.
Both the UN and Turkey are satisfied that Ukrainian grain is leaving for countries in desperate need for food, under a deal they brokered with Russia and Ukraine on 22 July, 2022.
By 18 August, 2022 a total of 25 ships loaded with grain have left three ports in Ukraine, under escort, through the Black Sea, while the war continues.
But, this rate is very slow as the hungry await Ukrainian grain.
The silos need to be emptied as 55 more tonnes of agricultural produce are expected from this year’s harvest.
Both men (Guterres and Erdoğan) will also visit Russia and meet with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
President Putin in a telephone call with President Emmanuel Macron of France on 19 August, 2022 agreed on an IAEA visit to the plant but, was silent on withdrawal of his troops.
Guterres’ mission was a tough one because Ukraine is insisting on regaining all its lost territory while Russia ruled out withdrawing from any of them, including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant it seized on 4 March, 2022.
The killing of Darya Dugina, daughter of prominent Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin – an ally of President Vladimir Putin – in a car bomb on 20 August, 2022 added to the tensions as Russia accused Ukrainian secret service of the crime.
Of urgent concern, is the need to prevent a looming nuclear disaster in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The war was still raging, after a first rocket attack near the nuclear power plant, cut-off electricity from its power line on 5 August, 2022.
Another landed by the storage facility of the plant, damaging the Nitrogen-Oxygen unit and injuring a worker.
Both Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of firing the rockets.
More rockets continued to land near the site, daily.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on state television on 7 August, 2022 accused Russia of “nuclear terrorism.”
The Russian embassy in US said Ukraine’s multiple rocket launcher did the damage.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who was in Japan for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial marking the 77th anniversary of the use of the first atomic bomb, described the Zaporizhzhia attack as “suicidal.”
He asked both Russia and Ukraine to urgently, allow the IAEA access to stabilise the plant.
The G7 Foreign Ministers said they are seriously concerned about the danger that a nuclear accident there will cause and asked Russia to withdraw from the plant.
Russia’s withdrawal is seen as giving back territory it seized, while the war is still raging.
In a nuclear power plant that generates power, the electricity it produces must be evacuated and used.
The fourth reactor automatically switched-off while the Ukrainian workers, still in the plant, had to rush and restore normalcy.
Ukraine says it seriously suspects that Russia wants to steal and divert the electricity produced by the plant to Russian-occupied Crimea.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Director-General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, expressed deep concerns about the safety, security and safeguards levels in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Grossi said the (Zaporizhzhia nuclear power) plant was running “out of control.”
It has the largest of the 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine and is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe with six pressurised water reactors of 1,000 mw each.
The Ukrainian staff continue to operate it but, Russia controls the plant.
As a result, spare parts and some equipment needed in the plant cannot be delivered as planned and the Ukrainian nuclear regulatory agency has lost oversight of the plant.
Ukraine has also accused Russian troops of using the plant as a “human” shield to launch artillery attacks against it, knowing that a response will not be possible because it will damage the plant and cause a nuclear accident.
Russian troops reportedly, numbering up to 500 there are even, said to use a space in the facility near the reactors as warehouse for their weapons.
The IAEA boss could not lead an inspection team to the site without cessation of hostilities and safety assurances from both sides.
Russia’s atomic energy agency, Rosatom, and that of Ukraine, Energoatom, say they have received Grossi’s request that he and his team be authorized to visit the Zaporizhzhia site.
Grossi visited Chernobyl also in Ukraine on 27 April, 2022 but under special arrangement and protection from the two warring sides.
Chernobyl was also seized by Russia from Ukraine in the ongoing war.
Although, Chernobyl nuclear power plant is de-commissioned, radioactive materials are still stored in the facility.
The IAEA is faced with the risk of a nuclear catastrophe which is different from the world’s worst nuclear accident in Chernobyl in 1986.
It is a completely new scenario, as it is the first time, the IAEA says, that an operating nuclear facility is captured in war.
