By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday demanded that Russia “urgently withdraw its military and other unauthorized personnel” from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and return it to the full control of Ukrainian authorities.
The 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution with 99 votes in favor, nine against and 60 abstentions.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, was captured by Russia shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is shut down but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.
Speaking before the vote, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya urged countries to vote in favor of the resolution, saying: “We owe this to future generations. We must ensure that the horrors of nuclear disasters are not repeated.”
Throughout the war, Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant and putting down power lines. Ukraine has dismissed Russian accusations, saying it was not attacking nuclear facilities.
The U.N. resolution “calls for immediate cessation of the attacks by the Russian Federation against critical energy infrastructure of Ukraine, which increase the risk of a nuclear accident or incident at all nuclear facilities of Ukraine.”
Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told the General Assembly before the vote that the aim of the resolution was “to try to promote the false Western narrative about the source of threats to nuclear facilities in Ukraine.”
He held up in the General Assembly what he said was the wreckage of a Ukrainian drone that had been used to attack the Zaporizhzhia power plant on April 7. Ukraine has denied it was behind the drone attacks that Polyanskiy referenced.
Russia was diplomatically isolated several times during the first year of the war when almost three-quarters of the General Assembly repeatedly voted to denounce Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and demand it withdraw its troops.
The resolution adopted on Thursday again demands that Russia “immediately cease its aggression against Ukraine and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces.”
The General Assembly has been the focus for U.N. action on Ukraine because the 15-member Security Council has been paralyzed by Russia, which holds a veto power along with the United States, China, France and Britain.
The Security Council has just held dozens of meetings on Ukraine.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Deepa Babington)
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