China Asks Russia to Keep Ukraine's Nuclear Plants Safe

NEW DELHI — 

China has issued a call urging “all sides” to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, reflecting the nation’s unease over Russia’s shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest.

“We will monitor the situation and call on all sides to exercise restraint, avoid escalation and ensure the safety of relevant nuclear facilities,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said following the overnight attack, which sparked a fire at the Ukrainian compound.

The foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, refused to condemn the Russian attack or call it an invasion. That is consistent with the neutral stance that China has adopted on the issue at the recent meetings at the United Nations.

China does not want to be seen as a country condoning any military act that would endanger safety at a nuclear power plant, said a Chinese scholar who did not wish to be identified.

“We have our own technology for nuclear plants, the Hualong One technology, which we have begun to export,” he said.

FILE – A dome is installed over a Hualong One nuclear power unit at Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, May 23, 2018. (Photo provided by Fangchenggang nuclear power plant and released by China Daily via Reuters)

China signed an agreement with Argentina in January to build the Atucha III nuclear power plant at a cost of $8 billion. It will be the second major export of Hualong One technology, a rival to the U.S. Westinghouse technology, after Beijing built a nuclear power plant in Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative.

China was among the first to ask the International Atomic Energy Agency to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors at four sites.

“China is concerned about the safety, security and safeguards of nuclear facilities in Ukraine,” China’s envoy at the IAEA, Wang Qun Wang, was quoted as saying by the Chinese mission in Vienna.

Speaking at the IAEA meeting on Wednesday, the envoy said, “The responsibility for nuclear safety and security rests with sovereign states, and related issues should be handled through established procedures.

“We hope the relevant parties will act cautiously to avoid causing man-made nuclear safety and security incidents,” he said. “The IAEA should also take full consideration of the security situation in Ukraine in accordance with its mandate and properly address the issue of security protection in Ukraine.”

Russian soldiers earlier took over Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl power plant, site of a nuclear accident in 1986, raising fears about the safety of other nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

FILE – A giant protective dome built over the destroyed fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is seen April 13, 2021.

In another significant move, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has put a hold on its financial plans in Russia and Belarus, a close ally of Moscow. Those plans are now under review.

In a statement, the Beijing-headquartered AIIB said bank management was taking steps to safeguard its financial position in light of the evolving economic and financial situation.

“Under these circumstances, and in the best interests of the bank, management has decided that all activities relating to Russia and Belarus are on hold and under review.”

Biden Speaks with Ukraine’s Zelenskiy as Threat of Russian Invasion Looms

Washington — 

U.S. President Joe Biden is speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday as the United States says the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine looms as a “distinct possibility” in the coming days.

Biden is conferring by phone with the Ukrainian leader from the Camp David presidential retreat outside Washington, where the U.S. leader is spending the weekend as Western officials express increased fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack the one-time Soviet republic in the next few days, possibly by Wednesday.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security official, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that the U.S. cannot predict whether Russia might invade this week or after the Beijing Olympics end in a week, but that there is “a distinct possibility there will be a major military action.”

While the U.S. has warned for several months of the threat of a Russian attack, Sullivan said “in the last few days” Moscow has accelerated its military buildup.

Biden, in an hour-long call Saturday with Putin, warned the Russian leader that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering.” Biden said the United States and its allies remained committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but were “equally prepared for other scenarios.”

Russia said Biden continued to fail to address Moscow’s main security concerns, including ruling out Ukraine’s possible membership in the 30-country NATO military alliance led by the U.S. The Western allies have ruled out Russian veto power over NATO membership as a nonstarter but said they are willing to negotiate other security issues, such positioning of missiles in NATO counties closest to Russia and NATO troop training exercises.

Moscow’s troops have now surrounded much of Ukraine with more than 130,000 troops, to the north of Ukraine in Russian ally Belarus and along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia, while positioning warships to the south in the Black Sea along the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

“I’m not handicapping what will happen,” Sullivan said, but added that the U.S. and its allies would impose a “significant strategic [economic] loss” on Russia if it attacks Ukraine.

Biden has ruled out sending the U.S. military to fight in Ukraine but sent 5,000 U.S. troops to NATO countries in eastern European countries closest to Russia to help bolster their fighting forces.

The U.S. has urged all Americans living in Ukraine to leave immediately, and the Defense Department has pulled out 160 military advisers who had been assisting the Kyiv government.

Travelers wait at the check-in counters ahead of their flights at the Boryspil airport some 30 kilometers outside Kyiv on Feb. 13, 2022.

Sullivan said the U.S. believes a Russian attack could start with a barrage of missiles and aerial bombings followed by a ground invasion.

“Civilians could be killed regardless of their nationality,” he said.

Numerous countries have ordered their diplomatic personnel to leave Kyiv, while some are keeping smaller contingents in consulates in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, near the Polish border.

Several international airlines have stopped flying into Ukraine because of the impending threat of warfare, although Ukraine said it has not closed its airspace.

Dutch airline KLM said Saturday that it has canceled flights to Ukraine until further notice.

Dutch worries about the potential danger in Ukrainian airspace is high in the wake of the 2014 shootdown of a Malaysian airliner over an area of eastern Ukraine held by Russia-backed rebels. All 298 people aboard were killed, including 198 Dutch citizens.

The Ukrainian charter airline SkyUp said Sunday that its flight from Madeira, Portugal, to Kyiv was diverted to the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, after the Irish leasing company that owns the plane said it was banning flights in Ukrainian airspace.

Some material in this report came from the Associated Press.