‘Russia Plotting Catastrophic Attacks On Ukraine’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, has accused Russia of plotting potentially catastrophic attacks on Ukrainian nuclear plants after Moscow rejected his peace plan.
In a defiant address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he also condemned China and Brazil, two Russian allies, for proposing an alternative to his peace formula. “You will not boost your power at Ukraine’s expense,” Zelenskyy warned.
Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, agreed with Zelenskyy and blasted China for supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. “We cannot continue a situation where China helps Russia in a war … in Europe, without consequences. They have to be held responsible for their activities,” he said.
Zelenskyy spoke as the Kremlin called his plan“to force Russia to make peace” a “fatal mistake” that would have consequences for Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia wanted peace but that forcing the issue was impossible.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, met with Wang Yi, his Chinese counterpart, on the sidelines of the U.N. general assembly. The pair discussed “prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis” and measures to counter “the West’s escalation of the situation in the Asia-Pacific Region,” a statement said.
Zelenskyy’s comments at the U.N. were also closely watched by Washington as he was to meet in the White House with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss a “victory plan.”
INTERNATIONAL CONCERN
His talks come amid mounting international concern about the ongoing war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskyy is also due to meet with the U.S. presidential candidates, Donald J. Trump and Kamala Harris.
The talks come as the embattled Ukrainian leader is seeking uninterrupted Western support despite a rising death toll on both sides and setbacks.
Yet, despite earlier reports to the contrary, Russia’s troops did not reach the outskirts of Ukraine’s eastern town of Vuhledar, “but its reconnaissance groups are operating there,” said Vadym Filashkin, the governor of the Donetsk region, on Wednesday.
Russia said it had captured two more villages in Ukraine, though this has not been confirmed, and was attacking Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold.
Two people were killed and 12 others injured after a Russian-guided bomb strike on Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday, the Donetsk regional governor said.
Russian troops used “three highly destructive bombs” in the attack on the town’s center that damaged two apartment blocks, shops, and cars, he said.
WOMAN DIES
An 80-year-old woman died as a result of Russian shelling in Kherson, Alexander Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration, said on the social media platform Telegram. “As a result of another shelling, two people who were on the street were injured,” he added.
However, Kyiv suggested it retaliated as Ukrainian forces reportedly captured about 24 Russian soldiers and killed “several dozen” others during an operation to recapture an aggregate plant in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region.
The reports could not be independently verified.
As fighting intensified, Kyiv had been seeking permission to use British-French-made Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory.
While Britain supports the move, negotiations are ongoing with Washington as the weapons use some US technology, and the White House fears an escalation of the armed conflict. Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, told Russia he does not know how it can show its face at the United Nations after invading Ukraine and treating its own citizens as “bits of meat to fling into the grinder.”
Starmer, addressing the U.N. security council on Wednesday, accused Russia of violating the U.N. charter because its invasion of Ukraine was illegal, threatened global security, and had caused “colossal human suffering.”
There were renewed fears Wednesday that the war could turn into a broader armed conflict as the NATO military alliance said it plans to coordinate the transport of a large number of wounded troops away from the frontlines in case of a war with Russia, potentially via hospital trains as “air evacuations may not be feasible.”
The war has already killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people on the Ukrainian and Russian sides.