Putin must stop this madness and he must stop it now, says US at UNSC

The United States, while speaking at the UN Security Council on Friday, condemned Russia's attack on Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant and said "it must be stopped right now" in order to avert any humanitarian crisis.

During the meeting, the US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield demanded Moscow to avoid any further deployment of troops or any attack on the nuclear power plant. Reacting to multiple media reports and the Ukrainian government's allegation that the Russian forces were not letting the factories workers change their shift, Linda raised grave concern and demanded Russia to ensure a normal working environment at the nuclear power plant.

"Russian forces are now 20 miles and closing from Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear facility, so this imminent danger continues. We narrowly avoided a disaster last night," she said at the emergency UNSC meeting.

"The international community must be unanimous in demanding Russia’s forces stop their dangerous assault. As I have said before, the people of Ukraine are counting on us, and we must not let them down," she added.

It is worth mentioning that the statement from Linda came after Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant on Friday, resulting in a massive fire at the plant.

Russian defence ministry accuses Ukrainian sabotage group of setting the fire

The plant fire was the second time since the invasion began that concerns about a potential nuclear accident arose, following a battle at the heavily contaminated site of the now-decommissioned Chernobyl plant.

"President Putin must stop this humanitarian catastrophe by ending this war and ceasing these unconscionable attacks against the people of Ukraine. Mr Putin must stop this madness and he must stop it now. Cooler heads must prevail. To my Russian counterpart: this Council needs answers. We need to hear you say this won’t happen again, as our UK colleague just stated," added the US envoy.

In the attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, the chief of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said a Russian “projectile” hit a training centre, not any of its six reactors. In an emotional speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he feared an explosion that would be "the end for everyone, the end for Europe and the evacuation of Europe".

However, without producing evidence, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that a Ukrainian sabotage group had set the fire at Zaporozhizhia.

Image: Twitter/@USAmbUN