UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Thursday demanding that Russia urgently withdraw its military and personnel from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and immediately return the facility to Ukraine.
The resolution also reiterates the assembly’s demands for Russia to immediately “cease its aggression against Ukraine” and withdraw all troops, and again reaffirms the 193-member world body’s commitment to Ukraine’s “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity.”
The resolution was approved by a vote of 99-9 with 60 countries abstaining and 25 countries not voting.
Russia was joined by Belarus, Cuba, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua, Syria, Burundi and North Korea in opposing the resolution. China, India, South Africa and many Middle Eastern countries were among those abstaining.
The resolution expresses “grave concern over the precarious nuclear safety and security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.” It says returning the plant to Ukraine’s full control will ensure its safety and security and enable the International Atomic Energy Agency “to conduct safe, efficient and effective safeguards.”
Fears of a nuclear catastrophe have been at the forefront since Russian troops occupied the plant shortly after invading Ukraine in February 2022. Zaporizhzhia, which has six nuclear reactors, sits in Russian-controlled territory in southeastern Ukraine near the front lines and has been continually caught in crossfire.
Read More: Ukraine Is Preparing for Russia to Sabotage Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Plant
The IAEA has repeatedly expressed alarm about cuts to Zaporizhzhia’s electricity, which is crucial for the plant’s operation, and the plants’ supply issues. Without attributing blame, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the U.N. Security Council on April 15 that his agency had confirmed three attacks against Zaporizhzhia since April 7.
Both Ukraine and Russia have regularly accused the other of attacking the plant, and the accusations continued on Thursday.
Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya introduced the resolution, telling the General Assembly that Russia “continues to violate key principles of technological and physical nuclear security” and continues to attack the plant.
Ukraine and neighboring countries suffered “the disastrous consequences” of the nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl plant in 1986, he said, but the repercussions of a possible incident at Zaporizhzhia “which has been deliberately turned into a key component for the military strategy of Russia would be even more catastrophic.”
Kyslytsya warned that “if we simply stand with our arms crossed, that good luck will not last forever, and an incident will be inevitable.”
“Nuclear security and protection depend on our ability to adopt a strong and common stance on the inadmissibility of the continued occupation and militarization of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” the Ukrainian ambassador said.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky accused Ukraine and its Western supporters of trying to push through the resolution with the real goal of getting the General Assembly’s “blessing” for the outcome of last month’s Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland and “sneaking in political elements.”
In the conference communique, nearly 80 countries called for the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine to be the basis for any peace agreement to end the war. It also said Zaporizhzhia and other nuclear plants must remain under Ukrainian control in line with IAEA principles.
Polyansky accused the communique’s supporters of trying “to promote the false Western narrative about the source of threats to nuclear facilities in Ukraine.” He claimed that the only threat to nuclear facilities in Ukraine today is from Kyiv’s “regular, reckless attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” its related infrastructure, and the nearby city where plant employees and their families live.
https://time.com/6997689/un-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-russia-ukraine/
Ukraine in January-June this year increased exports of semi-finished carbon steel products in physical terms by 61.6% compared to the same period last year – up to 888.016 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Tuesday, in monetary terms, exports of semi-finished carbon steel products increased by 47.3% to $439.909 million.
The main exports were to Bulgaria (35.49% of shipments in monetary terms), Poland (11.74%) and Italy (8.56%).
In January-June 2024 Ukraine imported from Egypt 5 tons of semi-finished products worth $5 thousand, while in January-June 2023 it imported from China 72 tons of semi-finished products worth $133 thousand.
As reported, Ukraine in 2023 reduced exports of semi-finished carbon steel products in physical terms by 36.7% compared to 2022 – to 1 million 203.454 thousand tons, exports in monetary terms decreased by 48.9% to $608.516 million. The main exports were to Bulgaria (36.66% of supplies in monetary terms), Poland (23.01%) and Italy (9.60%).
In addition, in 2023 Ukraine imported 96 tons of semi-finished steel products from China (98.26%) and Turkey (1.74%) for the amount of $172 thousand.
Ukraine in the 2023-2024 marketing year, ending June 30, 2024, exported 57.5 million tons of grains and oilseeds from a harvest of 82.8 million tons, with transitional stocks of about 7 million tons, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) said.
“Last season, the most important factor for Ukrainian grain exports was the opening of the Ukrainian Humanitarian Corridor, which allowed exports by sea from the deep-water ports of Odessa. The second most important factor was the introduction by Ukraine together with international partners of a working mechanism of insurance of ships entering Ukrainian ports, which reduced the cost of exporters and, accordingly, Ukrainian agricultural producers on export logistics”, – said the association.
According to UZA analysts with reference to the information of the State Customs Service, in monetary terms exports of grains and oilseeds in 2023/2024 MY amounted to $10.76 billion, and exports including products from them, including sunflower oil and other oils, cakes and meal, amounted to $17.86 billion.
Wheat exports totaled 18.4 million tons worth $3 billion, with production of about 22 million tons. The top 3 importing countries of Ukrainian wheat included Spain, which purchased 5.899 million tons, Egypt – 1.721 million tons, Indonesia – 1.515 million tons.
Barley Ukraine supplied abroad almost 2.5 million tons for $376 million, with production of 5.8 million tons. The most active buyers were China – 702 thousand tons, Indonesia – 460 thousand tons, Cyprus – 221 thousand tons.
Last season Ukraine exported 29.3 million tons of corn worth $4.7 billion, while last year’s production was 29.6 million tons. Its main buyers were Spain – 6.011 million tons, China – 4.832 million tons, Egypt – 3.874 million tons.
Nearly 3 million tons of soybeans were sold to other countries for the amount of $1.1 billion, with a harvest of 4.9 million tons. The top 3 buyers were Egypt – 956 thousand tons, Turkey – 674 thousand tons, Germany – 235 thousand tons.
On the eve of the NATO summit in Washington, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk signed a bilateral security agreement in Warsaw. “Those who are defending Ukraine today are also defending themselves,” Tusk said.
The President of Ukraine called the agreement “ambitious”. “It is able to protect the lives of our people and resist Russian evil,” Selenskyy said. The agreement provides for the development of a mechanism by which “Russian missiles and drones fired in the direction of Poland can be shot down in Ukrainian airspace.”
Zelenskyy arrived in Poland on the day of fierce Russian missile attacks on his country that killed at least 26 people. A major children’s hospital in Kyiv was damaged. “There are no words, no documents, no political statements that would be enough to condemn the aggressor,” Tusk said.
Poland, a member of the EU and NATO, is one of the staunchest political and military supporters of Ukraine under attack by Russia. It also serves as an important hub for Western military aid to Kyiv. Poland has also hosted nearly a million refugees from its neighboring country.
Ukraine has concluded security agreements with the EU and 19 individual states, including the United States, Japan, and Germany. They formalize the military and civilian support already provided and offer the prospect of further assistance for an initial period of ten years.
In the afternoon, Selensky will meet with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda. The NATO summit on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the defense alliance will be held in Washington from July 9 to 11. The heads of state and government of the alliance’s 32 member states are expected to discuss, among other things, further assistance to Ukraine. Zelenskyy is also invited to the meeting. With the airspace over Ukraine closed since the start of the war, Zelenskiy must use the land route through Poland for all foreign travel before he can continue his journey by plane from there.
Source: https://www.zeit.de/news/2024-07/08/polen-und-ukraine-unterzeichnen-sicherheitsabkommen
Yaroslava Maguchikh from Dnipro, the bronze medalist of the 2020 Olympic Games in high jump, on Sunday set a world record by clearing the bar of 2m 10cm.
At the Diamond League stage in Paris, where the Olympic Games will start soon, she broke the record of Stefka Kostadinova from Bulgaria, which had been held since 1987 – 2 m 9 cm.
Before that, at the same competition, Maguchichykh renewed her personal record of 2m 7cm.
Currently, already 30 thousand square kilometers of de-occupied territories of Ukraine are recognized as such, which do not contain evidence of contamination by explosive objects, it is more than 17% of the preliminary assessment of contamination, reported in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Today, thanks to our joint work, the area of contaminated territories has already decreased by 30 thousand square kilometers. This means that in these territories were not found or were neutralized detected explosive objects,” – said the head of the Main Department of mine action, civil protection and environmental safety of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Colonel Ruslan Beregulia.
He also emphasized that now the most contaminated remain Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, where more than 50% of all incidents with explosive objects among civilians have occurred.
According to the colonel, while carrying out demining activities, a comprehensive approach is applied, which, among other things, provides for chemical analysis of soils of agricultural lands for the presence of hazardous substances.
The head of the Main Department of Mine Action also noted that now 78 mechanized demining vehicles of both domestic and foreign production are used for demining of de-occupied territories from explosive objects by demining groups of security and defense forces, as well as by mine action operators.
The ministry recalled that initially the area of potentially explosive contaminated de-occupied territories in Ukraine was estimated at 174 thousand square kilometers, of which 14 thousand square kilometers are water areas.
