Yelchenko at UN: Shelling of Donetsk filtration station may lead to accident of a scale similar to Chornobyl disaster
Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko made a corresponding statement at the UN Security Council open debate “Protection of civilians in armed conflict,” an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“Regrettably, Ukraine has become an example of the consequences of violation by one of the Permanent Members of the Security Council of norms and principles of international law, including International Humanitarian Law,” Yelchenko said.
The Ukrainian diplomat noted that Russian-led war in Donbas turned the lives of the civilian population into a vortex of destruction and death. “The death toll among civilians, according to the OHCHR, is as of now over 3300. Every third killed civilian is a woman or child,” he said.
Yelchenko reminded that just in February this year, a bus carrying civilians had been blown up near Olenivka village, Donetsk region. As a result of an anti-tank mine explosion, two civilians died on the spot.
The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN warned that the hostilities “also threaten the population with unprecedented environmental catastrophe not only for Ukraine, but for the whole Europe.”
“Here, the decision by the Russian occupation authorities to cease groundwater pumping at the YunKom mine, used in Soviet times for nuclear testing, endangers groundwater, rivers and ultimately the Sea of Azov with the radioactive contamination. Moreover, the Donetsk filtration station, an object that contains huge stocks of chlorine, remains under constant shelling by the Russian occupation forces. An accident at this station can be of a scale similar to Chornobyl disaster,” he explained.
According to the Ukrainian diplomat, Russia continues to plant landmines, and unexploded remnants of war keep multiplying in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, especially in densely populated areas. This has already made Ukraine one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world.
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