Zelenskyy: World must make Russia withdraw from Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, or else all nuclear security agreements are worthless

ALONA MAZURENKO – THURSDAY, 18 AUGUST 2022, 21:26

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is convinced that the rest of the world’s countries can ensure that Russia withdraws its troops from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Otherwise, all nuclear security agreements are worthless, he believes.

Quote: "There are no real obstacles preventing the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency - ed.] mission from reaching the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Those who carry out nuclear blackmail certainly cannot be trusted with facilitating any such missions. Russia must immediately and unconditionally allow the IAEA representatives to access the plant and withdraw its troops from the territory of the plant, also immediately and unconditionally. The world has the power to ensure this happens.

If it fails to ensure this, we can simply throw the entire body of international documents on nuclear and radiation security into the trash bin. Russia is destroying the international order these are based on."

Details: President Zelenskyy also noted that today, on 18 August, he discussed the framework for a possible visit of an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia NPP with UN Secretary-General António Guterres during their meeting in Lviv. Zelenskyy assured Guterres that the IAEA mission will be able to get to the power plant "in a legal manner and via the territories that have not been captured by the occupiers".

The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that a "large-scale provocation by the Kyiv regime" could take place at the ZNPP on 19 August during the visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Ukraine.

On 17 August, Guterres arrived in Lviv to meet with the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey. During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Guterres discussed the situation at the ZNPP, as well as the search for a political solution to end the war with Russia.

Earlier, the UN said that it could assist the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Zaporizhzhia from Kyiv, but Russia is insisting that any mission that will pass through Ukraine is too dangerous. On 18 August, it became known that the Director General of the IAEA will personally lead the mission to ZNPP.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council, the United States indicated that for the sake of the security of the ZNPP, Russian troops should be withdrawn from there. Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s representative to the UN, rejected the offer to create a demilitarised zone around the ZNPP.

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Vitroswhyuask on August 19th, 2022 at 02:40 UTC »

Hmmmm... Pretty sure russia agreed to respect ukraine sovernty after they gave up nukes.... How did that work out

Pklnt on August 19th, 2022 at 00:44 UTC »

So I'm going to quote this article that is quite interesting.

Due to the special danger posed by nuclear power plants, states were able to agree on regulating attacks on “nuclear electrical generating stations” and hence nuclear power plants in the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions in the 1970s. However, granting a general immunity to nuclear power plants from the conduct of hostilities did not find consensus among states. Under certain circumstances, even nuclear power plants can be attacked if the military advantage of such an attack outweighs the danger and damage. Nevertheless, there was consensus among the High Contracting Parties to Additional Protocol I to nuclear electrical generating stations under special protection in Art. 56 on “Protection of works and installations containing dangerous forces” in international armed conflict between two High Contracting Parties.

I have checked Customary Law from UNSEC countries to see what they had to say regarding such attacks.

France:

[...]cannot guarantee absolute protection to works and installations containing dangerous forces, which may contribute to the opposing Party’s war effort, or to the defenders of such installations[...]

Russia (Same doctrine than Ukraine):

[...]An especially dangerous object shall lose its immunity (status) if it provides regular, significant and direct support for the enemy military operations (for dams and dykes, it is only possible if they are used for other than their normal functions), moreover, if such an attack is the only feasible way to terminate such support.

UK:

[...]cannot undertake to grant absolute protection to installations which may contribute to the opposing Party’s war effort, or to the defenders of such installations[...]

China:

I found nothing. The only comment they made regarding that was a condemnation of ROC for targeting dams to stop the Japanese. Considering CCP's point of view against the ROC, it's absolutely not a reliable statement we can expect from them.

USA:

The United States has not accepted that such a rule, prohibiting attacks on works and installations containing dangerous forces, exists absolutely if, under the circumstances at the time, they are lawful military objectives.

Regarding what Zelenskyy is saying:

Russia must immediately and unconditionally allow the IAEA representatives to access the plant and withdraw its troops from the territory of the plant, also immediately and unconditionally. The world has the power to ensure this happens.

This is again the core problem when it comes to this issue, Ukraine has refused the IAEA to inspect this plant months ago when the situation wasn't that dire because Ukraine doesn't want the IAEA to deal with Russia and "legitimize" the Russian occupation. This is understandable, but IAEA's prerogatives aren't to legitimize anything.

The problem is that not only Zelenskyy doesn't understand (or pretend to) that the IAEA isn't a body that is ruling on whether an occupation is lawful or not (and the invasion has been unlawful since the beginning, so it's a moot point) or to legitimate it, its sole concern is Nuclear safety. For the IAEA, it doesn't matter if Ukraine or Russia holds the plant, what matters is if the plant is safe.

Again, the issue here is that Nuclear safety is being brought up by Ukrainians as a tool to ensure a military victory by forcing Russian troops from vacating the plant. IAEA doesn't have the power nor is its mission to do that... so blocking IAEA visits to force such retreat is impossible.

By the way, if anyone has a knowledge of such agreements Zelenskyy is talking about, feel free to reply.

MJDAndrea on August 18th, 2022 at 23:01 UTC »

If the world had the power to make Russia do anything they wanted, Ukraine wouldn't have been invaded in the 1st place.