Any attack on a nuclear power plant “suicidal”: UN boss Guterres

Any attack on a nuclear power plant is “suicidal,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday after fresh shelling hit a huge nuclear power plant complex in southern Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv are blaming each other for the latest strike at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian control since the war began.

Friday’s fighting at the plant has prompted the United Nations’ nuclear regulator, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to warn of “the very real risk of a nuclear catastrophe”.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Guterres condemned such attacks without naming either side responsible.

“We support the IAEA in its efforts to create the conditions for the stabilization of this facility,” he said.

“Any attack on a nuclear power plant is a suicidal thing. I hope these attacks will end and at the same time I hope that the IAEA will gain access to the power plant.”

His comments followed a visit to Hiroshima over the weekend, where Guterres delivered a speech to mark the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.

In the Japanese city on Saturday, he warned that “mankind is playing with a loaded gun” as crises with the potential for nuclear catastrophe spread across the world, from Ukraine to the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.

The 73-year-old Portuguese issued a clear warning about the horrors of nuclear weapons at an important conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York a week ago, which he repeated on Monday.

“We are witnessing a radicalization of the geopolitical situation that makes the risk of renewed nuclear war something we cannot entirely forget,” he said.

Asked about China’s massive military exercises around Taiwan, prompted by a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-governing island last week, Guterres said the UN “adheres to a General Assembly resolution, the so-called One China Policy”.

“But we all want this resolution to conform to a peaceful environment,” he said, calling for common sense and restraint to allow for a “hugely important” de-escalation.