Zelenskyy calls on world leaders to force Russia to negotiate a ‘just peace'

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the United Nations that Russia is planning to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants as he repeated his calls for unity from world leaders in order to force Russia to the negotiating table to conclude a "just peace".

- Andrew Roth, Pjotr Sauer

His comments came as Vladimir Putin yesterday escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons.

In a speech to the UN general assembly yesterday, Zelenskyy said that he had received information that Russia was gathering intelligence on Ukrainian nuclear power plants in preparation for a potential strike.

"Any missile or drone strike, any critical incident in the energy system could lead to a nuclear disaster, a day like that must never come," the Ukrainian leader said in an address in the general assembly hall. "And Moscow needs to understand this, and this depends in part on your determination to put pressure on the aggressor."

He added: "These are nuclear power plants, they must be safe." Zelenskyy said the war in Ukraine could threaten the region with instability and the potential for a nuclear catastrophe, if Russia went forward with the attacks. "If, God forbid, Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, the radiation will not respect state borders," he said, comparing the consequences to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident of 1986.

Last month Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of starting a fire on the site of the giant Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has six Soviet-built reactors, making it Europe's largest.