“We call on President Putin to stop this war immediately, withdraw all his forces from Ukraine without conditions and engage in genuine diplomacy now,” Stoltenberg said.īlinken echoed that demand, saying that Putin’s “war of choice” undermined the fundamental principles of self-determination and democracy. But Ukraine has already stated an eagerness to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which is investigating potential war crimes by Russia even though Kyiv is not a signatory to that body, either. signed onto the international convention that bans the munition, nor has Ukraine. Stoltenberg confirmed Russia’s use of cluster bombs - a potential war crime because the bombs are made of numerous smaller explosives that are indiscriminate in whom they kill and maim. North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the attack on Zaporizhzhia showed “the recklessness of this war.” At the same time, he said, NATO would not deploy planes over Ukrainian airspace to establish a no-fly zone or put troops on the ground in Ukraine, in order to avoid a greater confrontation with Moscow. Thousands of refugees are reportedly arriving by the hour in neighboring Poland and Hungary. The United Nations says 1.3 million people - about 3% of Ukraine’s population - have fled the country in the last nine days. Shelling continued in Kyiv, the capital, and Kharkiv, the nation’s second-most populous city, in the northeast. I am with my people.”Īn advisor to Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had also repelled an assault on the strategic port city of Odessa, the Associated Press reported. “I am determined to resist to the last bullet,” he said. But it was unclear how long the resistance could be sustained and whether, if overrun, the city would be able to feed or protect its people. The Ukrainian military and local civilian defense forces were holding them at bay, Senkevych said. “They destroyed people’s homes, schools and other civilian infrastructure,” the mayor said. The troops had pressed north from the Crimean peninsula that Russia illegally annexed eight years ago. “Russian troops are on the outskirts of the city,” Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said in a telephone interview with The Times. The mayor of Mykolaiv, northwest of Kherson, said Friday that his city remained under Ukrainian control “for now.” The city of Kherson has fallen, and the strategic port of Mariupol has come under constant shelling, with hundreds of residents feared dead, basic services disrupted and supplies cut off. His comments came as Russian troops strengthened their grip on Ukraine’s south in a bid to choke off access to the Black and Azov seas and establish control over a swath of land pushing up against Moldova and NATO member Romania to the west. “Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station.” “Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops,” said Zelensky, who fielded a flurry of worried calls from President Biden and other world leaders. Ukraine is home to four nuclear power plants. In an emotional video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for a stop to the shelling of Zaporizhzhia and for a Western-enforced no-fly zone over the country to forestall any other strikes on sensitive infrastructure. ambassador to the United Nations, warned in an emergency session of the Security Council that Russia could make use of any of Ukraine’s other nuclear facilities as pawns in the war.Įnergoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear plant operator, said three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two were injured in the strike. Norway’s leader called the shelling of Zaporizhzhia “in line with madness.” Initial reports Friday had mistakenly indicated there was a fire inside one of the reactors.īut the strike on the plant, which sparked immediate fears of a Chernobyl-like disaster, with radioactive clouds drifting over the rest of Europe, demonstrated anew the war’s potential for terrifying effects far outside Ukraine’s borders. None of the site’s six reactors - only one of which was in use, at about 60% capacity - was damaged, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Geneva.
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