Zelenskyy warns of nuclear risk, urges countries to accept his peace plan

Volodymyr Zelenskyy advocates for peace amid U.N. Security Council veto power, warning of nuclear risks and calling for Russian withdrawal.

Addressing the 79th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of the risk of a nuclear accident with Russia’s continued occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant.

Mr. Zelenskyy also suggested his plan for peace was the way forward as resolving the war at the U.N. was “impossible” because of Russia’s veto power at the Security Council.

He reminded the 193-member UNGA that it had passed a resolution (99 in favour, 9 against, 60 abstentions, including India) in July calling on Russia to return control of all nuclear facilities, particularly the plant in Zaporizhzhia, to the Ukrainian authorities.

“Radiation will not respect state borders,” he said, warning that, like smoke fires, the fallout from any radioactive incident could spread across Europe and possibly farther afield.

Mr. Zelenskyy told the UNGA that Russia was against his peace proposal, first presented at the G-20 Summit in Indonesia in November 2022, and the peace conference in Switzerland, because in these formulations “all were equal” and no single country could control the process. He warned that the UN was not capable of bringing peace because of Security Council vetoes.

The Ukrainian 10-point peace proposal involves Russia withdrawing completely from Ukraine, including from Crimea, and the restoration of the pre-2014 Russia-Ukraine borders, nuclear safety, food and energy security and accountability for war crimes, among other things.

“When the aggressor exercise veto power, the UN is powerless to stop the war,” he said, presenting the Ukrainian peace plan as a viable way forward. He said “half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles” ignored reality and gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the political space to continue fighting.