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RL's Russian Service Starts Hunger Strike Over Arrest [1]
["Rfe Rl'S Russian Service"]
Date: 2022-08
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on the United Nations to ensure the safety of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine amid growing fears over fighting in the area and Russia's housing of troops at the site.
During talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on August 18 in the western city of Lviv, Zelenskiy said he also discussed the issue of Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports that recently restarted after a UN-brokered deal opened a path for ships to transport cereals and fertilizers out of the country.
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"Particular attention was paid to the topic of Russia's nuclear blackmail at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power station. This deliberate terror on the part of the aggressor can have catastrophic consequences for the whole world. Therefore, the UN must ensure the security of this strategic building, its demilitarization, and its complete liberation from Russian troops," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram after the meeting.
Guterres and the international community have expressed deep concern over the risk of disaster at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, amid reports of shelling and other dangers in the past week.
The United Nations has offered to help facilitate a visit by its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to Zaporizhzhya, but Moscow has dismissed the idea of a mission traveling through Kyiv despite vowing it would do all it could to help ensure IAEA access to the plant.
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman called the plan to demilitarize the zone around the plant "unacceptable," saying it would make the facility even more vulnerable to attack.
Russia doesn't deny it has troops located at the plant but has disputed claims it has shelled the area. Instead, Moscow blames Ukrainian forces for firing artillery shells in the area, which officials in Kyiv deny.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join the talks in Lviv.
Erdogan has repeatedly sought a role for his NATO-member state to mediate in the conflict, and Ankara was crucial to the deal that allowed for the restart of grain and fertilizer exports from three of Ukraine's Black Sea ports.
The first ship to depart under the deal left Ukraine on August 1. Since then, 25 cargo ships have sailed from Ukrainian ports.
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's biggest grain exporters. The halt of exports led to price increases globally amid fears of widespread food shortages, particularly in poor countries.
"We agreed to continue the coordination of the grain initiative implementation. We also discussed the possible directions of its development," Zelensky wrote after meeting with Guterres, who is scheduled to visit a Ukrainian Black Sea port on August 19.
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[1] Url:
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-journalist-shukayeva-hunger-strike/31994505.html
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