US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia on Monday of using the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhiaunder his control since March, as a military base to launch attacks.
(Also read: Humanity is ‘one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation’, says UN)
“Russia is using this plant as a military base to shoot at the Ukrainians knowing that (the Ukrainians) cannot and will not return fire, because they could hit a nuclear reactor or highly radioactive waste in storage,” Blinken said in a speech. at the United Nations headquarters.
(See here: Nuclear weapons, an option for Moscow in fear of NATO advance?)
“This takes the concept of using a human shield to a totally different and horrendous level,” insisted the head of US diplomacy, who represented his country at the opening of a conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Blinken said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in addition to a serious violation of international law, is a direct attack on the atomic non-proliferation system by going against the security guarantees that Moscow had given to kyiv in 1994 to dispose of of the nuclear arsenal inherited from the Soviet Union.
As he assured, this movement sends “the worst possible message” for all those countries that are thinking about whether they need atomic weapons to protect themselves.
Blinken also charged against the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for using his country’s nuclear weapons card to dissuade others from getting involved in the Ukrainian conflict.
As he stressed, the US – which, together with Russia, is the country with the most nuclear weapons – remains committed to reducing its arsenal and ensuring that this type of weapon is not used again.
In this sense, he highlighted the agreement that, after only two weeks in power, the US president, Joe Biden, reached with Putin to extend the New Start agreement until 2026 and his willingness to negotiate as soon as possible a new text to replace this treaty that limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons of the two countries.
Blinken said that the conference to review the NPT takes place at a “key” moment, among other things because of the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program and while trying to negotiate with Iran a return to the 2015 atomic agreement, of the that the US came out under the government of Donald Trump.
As he stressed, recovering that pact “continues to be the best result for the United States, for Iran and for the world.”
EFE
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