Safety zone at Ukraine nuke plant not possible: Russian leader

An elderly woman cooks on an open fire outside a building in Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region Tuesday. Pic/AFP

A safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine is not possible while the front line is 100 km (62 miles) away, the Russian-installed leader of the region said on Wednesday.

"I can tell you that negotiating while the front line is 100 kilometres away from the station ... I think that's extremely unsafe," Yevgeny Balitsky told state television. He also warned that it is not possible to shut down the plant, despite fears shelling could further compromise its safety. "It's not a toy, you can't just turn it on and off like a switch. There's overclocking, there's cooling and so-forth," Balitsky said. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been pushing for a demilitarised security zone around the plant, Europe's largest, which remains close to the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling the plant and the facilities around it, risking a nuclear accident.

The head of the U.N's nuclear watchdog IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant surrounded by Russian troops has lost all external power needed for vital safety systems for the second time in five days. "This repeated loss of #ZNPP's off-site power is a deeply worrying development and it underlines the urgent need for a nuclear safety & security protection zone around the site," Grossi tweeted.

Special services blamed

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine's special services were behind an attack that damaged the Crimean Bridge last Saturday. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said earlier it had detained five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine over the blast on the bridge, which Putin has called an act of terror.

A leak was detected in an underground oil pipeline in Poland which is the main route through which Russian crude reaches Germany, the Polish operator said Wednesday.

50-nation talks

More than 50 countries gathered on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss bolstering Ukraine's air defence, two days after Russian missiles rained on Kyiv and other cities across the country. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged allies to send more air defence systems to Ukraine. Stoltenberg said the "horrific, indiscriminate attacks" showed why this was so important. "We need different types of air defence - short-range, long-range, air defence systems to take ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, different systems for different tasks," he told reporters.

Pope condemns bombing

Pope Francis leaves after the weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican Monday. Pic/AFP

Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned Russia's "relentless bombings" of Ukrainian cities, saying the attacks had unleashed a "hurricane of violence" on residents. Speaking to thousands of people at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, he also appealed to "those who have the fate of the war in their hands" to stop. "My heart is always with the Ukrainian people, especially the residents of the places that have been hit by relentless bombings," Francis said. "May (God's) spirit transform the hearts of those who have the fate of the war in their hands, so that the hurricane of violence stops and peaceful coexistence in justice can be rebuilt."

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