The IAEA is still working on Ukraine’s power plant plan despite Putin’s taunt
A serviceman wearing a Russian flag on his uniform stands guard near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region on August 4, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
The head of the United Nations atomic agency said he would not abandon a plan to create a buffer zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant despite Russian plans to mobilize new troops and hold a referendum in the region.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for bombings at the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant that have damaged buildings near its six reactors and risked nuclear catastrophe, even cutting essential power lines to cool the fuel in the reactors even though they are shut down. downward.
Ukrainian personnel are operating under the command of Russian forces at the site. Western states have asked Moscow to withdraw its troops.
“Even in the worst conditions, diplomacy should never stop. We cannot throw up our hands and say look what is being said, leave and wait for something to happen to solve this situation”, Rafael Grossi, head of the Atomic International. Energy Agency, told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“It is our responsibility to do so by proposing pragmatic, realistic and physical proposals on the table”.
— Reuters
Biden meets UK Prime Minister Liz Truss in first formal bilateral since taking office
Elizabeth Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, sits in a bilateral discussion with her Japanese counterpart during the G7 foreign ministers’ summit of major democratic economic powers at Schlossgut Weissenhaus. The G7 countries of Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan are joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
Marcus Brandt | Alliance of the image | Getty Images
President Joe Biden met with UK Prime Minister Liz Truss on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The two leaders were initially scheduled to meet last week in London at 10 Downing Street.
Biden began the bilateral meeting by offering his condolences on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Truss thanked Biden and first lady Jill Biden for attending the late monarch’s state funeral.
He also thanked Biden for his leadership as a “stalwart ally.” Truss said he enjoyed working with his Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his previous role as UK Foreign Secretary.
Truss, was promoted to the post of Prime Minister earlier this month, following the resignation of Boris Johnson.
The president did not respond to reporters’ questions.
— Amanda Macias
Biden meets UN chief after General Assembly speech
United States President Joe Biden and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters , in New York on September 20, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after his address to the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
Biden said he had no further response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize about 300,000 additional troops to fight in Ukraine when asked by reporters ahead of the meeting.
During Biden’s speech, he criticized Moscow’s full-speed assault on Ukraine and pledged to continue supporting the war-torn nation with weapons and humanitarian aid.
Biden and Guterres are expected to address other issues besides the war in Ukraine during their closed-door meeting.
— Amanda Macias
Biden calls on UN member states to stand by Ukraine and oppose Russian aggression
US President Joe Biden addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 21, 2022.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
President Joe Biden called on UN member states to stand by Ukraine and oppose Russian aggression, warning that the Kremlin’s encroachment on its smaller neighbor threatened the independence and sovereignty of nations around the world.
“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state plain and simple, and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people,” Biden told the UN General Assembly. “Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, this should chill your blood.”
Biden condemned Russia’s invasion as a clear violation of the UN charter. The US president said the nations of the world have an obligation to put aside their political differences and uphold the founding principles of the global body in solidarity with Ukraine.
“If nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequence, we put everything this institution stands for at risk,” Biden said. The president called for the UN to be “clear, firm and unwavering in our decision.”
“Ukraine has the same rights that belong to all sovereign nations. We will stand in solidarity with Ukraine, we will stand in solidarity against Russian aggression, period,” Biden said.
— Spencer Kimball
Zelenskyy set to make dramatic UN remarks as Russia mobilizes more troops for war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Kharkiv region for the first time since Russia launched attacks against his country on February 24, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, May 29, 2022. (Photo from the Presidency of Ukraine/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Presidency of Ukraine | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver dramatic remarks to world leaders on Wednesday, just hours after Russia moved to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops for its months-long assault on its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Zelenskyy, who has not left his war-weary nation since Russia’s all-out attack in late February, will speak after a stunning Ukrainian counter-offensive that recaptured large swathes of land lost earlier in the war.
While almost every leader who has passed behind the UN celebrity speaker’s rostrum has condemned Russia for its ongoing assault, Zelensky is expected to urge leaders to publicly state where they stand on the war.
It will ask countries like China, the world’s second largest economy, to abandon their neutrality.
— Amanda Macias
Biden hoped to hit out at Russia’s war in Ukraine in a UN speech
President Joe Biden speaks during the first state Democratic dinner in Dover, Delaware.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden is expected to defend Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and galvanize allies to support Kyiv in its era-defining fight for sovereignty.
Biden’s speech to the 77th United Nations General Assembly comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 200th day, as governments continue to grapple with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and as uncertainties mount over the climate change.
After his speech to the international forum, Biden will meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and then separately with British Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters last week that a US delegation will meet with a delegation from Ukraine on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. He said no meeting with the Russian delegation had been planned.
— Amanda Macias
Pope says Ukrainians are subjected to ‘savages, monstrosities and torture’
Pope Francis delivers his homily in St. Peter’s Square during his weekly general audience on June 15, 2022 in Vatican City, Vatican City.
Franco Origlia Getty Images
The Pope in a weekly speech prayed for the tortured corpses left after Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I would like to mention the terrible situation in the troubled Ukraine. Cardinal Krajewski went there for the fourth time. He called me yesterday, he is spending time there, helping in the Odesa area and getting closer,” Pope Francis said , as he explained. a translation from NBC News.
“He told me about the pain of these people, the savagery, the monstrosities, the tortured corpses they find. Let’s join these noble and martyred people,” added the Pope.
— Amanda Macias
Partial mobilization is “a great tragedy” for the Russian people, Ukrainian official says
A senior Ukrainian official has described Russia’s announcement of a partial mobilization of its military as a “great tragedy” for the Russian people.
The move, announced by President Putin on Wednesday morning, will see some 300,000 military reservists called up and sent to Ukraine.
Serhiy Nykyforov, a spokesman for the Office of the President of Ukraine, told NBC’s Erin McLaughlin that “300,000 of the people who were drafted yesterday will only be sent to the places where the repeat thugs, the mercenaries and the scumbag Kadyrov. [Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic] the fighters failed. It’s clear what’s going to happen to these guys over there, who, as we saw in the first days of the invasion, the military can’t adequately train and provide for,” he said.
“This is a recognition of the inability of the Russian professional army, which has failed in all its tasks. As we see, the Russian authorities intend to compensate for this with violence and repression against their own people. The sooner it stops , the fewer Russian children will die at the front,” he added.
—Holly Elliott
Qatar Airways to continue flying to Russia, CEO says
Qatar Airways CEO HE Akbar Al Baker said on Wednesday that airlines will continue to fly to Russia as long as it is operationally safe to do so.
“We will continue to fly to Russia, we will continue to serve the people,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Wednesday. “We are not a political institution. We are an industry that serves ordinary people.”
The CEO said China’s Covid policies are “the least of his worries,” especially in contrast to the potential escalation of war between Ukraine and Russia, which he said could fuel…