Ukraine Calls on UN to Close Sky over Country’s Nuclear Power Plants

The United Nations should make efforts to close the sky over nuclear facilities in Ukraine as Russia’s invasion has ramped up significantly the threat to nuclear power plants.

Mykola Tochytskyi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, made such a call at the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

“For the first time in history, civilian nuclear facilities were turned into military ones and bridgeheads of the Russian army in violation of the provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons regarding the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” the diplomat emphasised.

According to him, the world “witnessed how nuclear terrorism occurs in reality” sponsored by a nuclear power so the UN should resort to “decisive joint action” to prevent a nuclear disaster on a global scale.

“We ask to close the sky over nuclear power plants in Ukraine, to ensure protection by air defence systems, to prove that the aggressor cannot go unpunished just because it possesses nuclear weapons,” the deputy minister said.

He also noted that the Russian Federation violated all the norms of international law by launching a war against Ukraine and clearly expressing its intentions to locate its nuclear arsenal in the territory of non-nuclear states, which seriously threatens the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Bohdan Marusyak