NATO condemns attack on nuclear plant in Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned this Friday the “irresponsibility” of Russia following the attack on the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, which suffered a fire on Thursday night.

“We have seen reports about the attack on that nuclear plant. This shows the irresponsibility” of this conflict, Stoltenberg said before an urgent meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, in the first reaction of the transatlantic alliance to this attack.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is considered the largest in Europe and on the night of Thursday to Friday it suffered a fire after being attacked by Russian forces, according to Ukrainian authorities.

However, the incident was brought under control and the reactors were deactivated and, according to the Ukrainian nuclear regulator, no radioactive release has been recorded at the plant.

In Brussels, Stoltenberg received the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, before an emergency meeting of the alliance, in which the head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, and the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden, two associated countries.

“We are not looking for a conflict. We are a defensive alliance and we are going to defend our territory,” Blinken said shortly after being greeted by Stoltenberg.

For Borrell, “this war is totally unjustified (…) we must remain united and be prepared to act.”

Luxembourg’s influential foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, said that NATO must strengthen itself and help its partner countries in the east of the continent, but considered that getting fully involved in the conflict would be a “catastrophe”.

This position seems to diminish the chances of adopting a no-fly zone over Ukraine for now.

For Asselborn, such a decision should be adopted by the United Nations (UN), while Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky warned that if NATO commits to this initiative “it means that it is involved in a conflict.”

For the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, it is necessary to “maintain the isolation” of Russia.

During the day, Borrell will chair a meeting of EU foreign ministers, to which he invited Blinken and the foreign ministers of Canada and the United Kingdom, who are in Brussels for the NATO meeting.

The idea of ​​organizing a unified EU-NATO meeting met with the irreducible veto of Turkey, a country in the military alliance, due to the presence of Cyprus, which is part of the EU but not NATO. (I)