Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the United Nations on Wednesday that Moscow was making plans to attack his nation’s nuclear power plants – as Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he was within his rights to fire nuclear weapons at a nation supported by a nuclear power.
In his latest speech to world leaders, Zelensky raised the alarms of a potential “nuclear disaster” unless Kyiv is finally given the green light to use long-range US missiles to strike directly into Russia.
“Putin does seem to be planning attacks on our nuclear power plants and infrastructure, aiming to disconnect the plants from the power grid,” the Ukrainian President warned.
“Any missile or drone strike or any critical incident in the energy system could lead to a nuclear disaster,” he added. “A day like that must never come.”
Zelensky estimated that 80% of his nation’s energy grid could fall in such an event as he warned neighboring countries that they could face their own crisis if Ukraine’s nuclear power stations are compromised.
“Radiation will not respect state borders,” he said, recalling global fear over the attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the first weeks of the war.
Along with the currently occupied ZNPP, Ukraine is home to three other nuclear power plants, according to the World Nuclear Association.
“No one could know how Russian strikes on the nuclear facility would end, and everyone in Ukraine was reminded of what Chernobyl means,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky, meanwhile, has been pleading with Western allies to lift the restrictions on long-range weapons to fight its invaders.
The use of such weapons, however, could trigger its own kind of nuclear disaster, Putin warned amid a meeting with top Kremlin officials on Wednesday, The New York Times reports.
“It is proposed that aggression against Russia by any nonnuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state be considered as their joint attack on the Russian Federation,” he warned.
While Putin did not name a specific country in his warning, it appeared to be aimed at Ukraine, which is supported by the US.
The Russian leader also suggested amending the country’s military doctrine, which regulates the use of nuclear weapons.
He said that the policy needed to be amended because “military-political circumstances is changing dynamically,” according to the Times.
Following Zelensky’s meeting with world leaders on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader is set to meet with President Biden on Thursday at the White House.
He is expected to directly ask for Biden to lift the weapons restriction as he prepares to share more details of his so-called “victory plan” for ending the war.
