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Zelensky demands global control over Russia’s nukes

“This year it is not enough just to remember Chernobyl… because this year, Russia created new threats that could surpass even the worst accident.”

By World Israel News Staff

Embattled Ukrainian president Volodoymr Zelensky demanded that world powers assume control of Russia’s nuclear arsenal during an impassioned speech Tuesday evening, on the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

“Every year on April 26th, the world remembers the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear disaster in human history,” Zelensky said.

“But this year it is not enough just to remember Chernobyl… because this year, Russia created new threats that could surpass even the worst accident.”

Zelensky said that the international community has a responsibility to wrest away nuclear power from Russian hands, though he did not specify how such a move could take place.

“I believe that after all that the Russian military has done in the Chernobyl zone and at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, no one in the world can feel safe knowing how many nuclear facilities, nuclear weapons and related technologies the Russian state has,” he said.

“If Russia has forgotten what Chernobyl is, it means that global control over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology is needed.”

Zelensky’s remarks came on the heels of a warning from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the possibility of nuclear weapons being used by Moscow was “real” and “serious.” He added that the potential for a nuclear war, should the West intervene in the Ukrainian conflict, “can’t be underestimated.”

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In late March, Ukrainian media reported that it was working with its Western allies to expel Russia from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Moscow’s “policy of nuclear terrorism,” Ukraine said, should be viewed as an “indisputable basis” to bar Russia from the international atomic watchdog group.

Also in March, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski suggested that the U.S. station nuclear warheads in Eastern Europe.

“Fundamentally, it makes sense to expand nuclear sharing to the eastern flank,” he told German news outlet Die Welt, adding that NATO should bolster its troop presence in the region.