Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy warns UN on nuclear plant safety

Former US President Donald Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not making concessions to Russia before Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.

Trump has repeatedly blamed the war in Ukraine on US President Joe Biden and has been critical of US aid to Kyiv. He is running for election on November 5 in a race against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump argued that "the worst deal [before the war] would've been better than what we have now."

"If they made a bad deal it would've been much better," he argued. "They would've given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years."

"What deal can we make? It's demolished," he said. "The people are dead. The country is in rubble."

Ukraine has lost a fifth of its territory and tens of thousands of lives in the conflict. In recent months, Russia has been making slow but steady gains along the front in eastern Ukraine.

Trump accused Biden of "egg[ing] it all on" by sending Ukraine military aid rather than pushing it to reach a deal with Russia.

Zelenskyy, who is in the New York to attend the UN General Assembly, had told the magazine The New Yorker that Trump "doesn't really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how."

Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden on Thursday in the White House, where he will present him with what he has described as a "victory plan" for the war.

US President Joe Biden says Washington will announce plans to accelerate support for Kyiv on Thursday, when he is due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.

He made the comments while presenting a joint declaration by 30 countries on supporting Ukraine in rebuilding from the damage of the war.

"We're committed to providing Ukraine with the resources that it needs to build back stronger than before ... You're not alone in this fight," Biden said.

In his comments, Zelenskyy referred to the US Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe after World War II, saying: "Today we are laying the foundation for a similar architecture of recovery."

A copy of the joint declaration distributed by the White House said it was Russia's responsibility under international law to pay for damages it caused in Ukraine.

"We reaffirm that, consistent with all applicable laws and our respective legal systems, Russia’s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions will remain immobilized until Russia ends its aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine," it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was attacked by another state supported by a nuclear power.

He made the comments during a meeting on updating Russia's nuclear deterrence strategy.

Russia's president said that the strategy entails "the basic principle of the use of nuclear weapons, namely, the use of nuclear forces is an extreme measure to protect the country's sovereignty."

In his proposed update to the strategy, Putin said that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to an attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear state.

"It is proposed that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state, be considered as their joint attack on the Russian Federation," he said. "The conditions for Russia´s transition to the use of nuclear weapons are also clearly fixed."

Ukraine has been asking Western allies for permission to use long-range weapons to strike targets deep within Russian territory. Ukrainian forces have also held parts of Russia's Kursk border region since an incursion launched in August.

During the meeting on Wednesday, Putin said that Moscow had "always taken a highly responsible approach" to nuclear issues, saying that it aimed to strengthen "global stability" and "prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and their components."

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy warned that Russia is able to block peace initiatives as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

"Unfortunately, at the UN, it is impossible to truly and fairly resolve matters of war and peace, because too much depends [on] the Security Council, on the veto powers," Zelenskyy said. "When the aggressor exercises veto power, the UN is powerless to stop the war."

"But the peace formula can," he added, referring to Kyiv's proposals on how to bring about an end to the war. 

Zelenskyy is set to hold talks with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, including on his latest proposals and plans to bring about an end to the war.

This comes just a few weeks before presidential elections in the US on November 5, with the implications of a potential Donald Trump victory unclear but potentially drastic for Ukraine.

Without being explicit, Zelenskyy himself has indicated the clock may be ticking amid his trip to the US, for instance when he called for his country's "victory plan" to be implemented "while all the officials who want victory for Ukraine are still in official positions." 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, dedicating much of his speech to the topic of the security of nuclear power plants and the fragility of Ukraine's bombarded electricity generation and distribution capacities. 

He said in his opening remarks that he wanted to talk about "a day that has already passed, and a day that must never come." The day that had passed was "on the night of March 4, 2022," when Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has six reactors and is the largest nuclear plant in Europe. 

"The Russian army stormed this facility just as brutally as any other during this war, without thinking about the consequences," Zelenskyy told UN delegates.

He called this "one of the most horrifying moments of the war, when no one could know how Russian strikes on the nuclear facility would end, and everyone in Ukraine was reminded of what Chernobyl means." 

He noted how the facility remained in Russian hands, and lauded a UN General Assembly call on Russia to return it to Ukrainian control. 

In reference to the day "that must never come," Zelenskyy turned to Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure more generally, calling it a tactic seeking to force Kyiv to capitulate in the cold winter months. He also claimed Russia was planning attacks on Ukrainian power plants.

"Any missile or drone strike, any criticial incident in the energy system, could lead to a nuclear disaster," he said.

"As of today, Russia has destroyed all our thermal power plants, and a large part of our hydroelectric capacity," Zelenskyy said. "This is how Putin is preparing for winter, hoping to torment millions of Ukrianians. Ordinary families, women, children, ordinary towns, ordinary villages. Putin wants to leave them in the dark and cold this winter, forcing Ukraine to suffer and surrender." 

Ukraine's military governor in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fyodorov, said on Wednesday that a 55-year-old man was killed and seven people wounded by Russian bombardment. 

He did not make comments on the weapons used or the type of strike. 

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had used 32 drones and eight missiles in overnight attacks across Ukraine, and that most of the drones and half of the missiles were intercepted. 

The military administration in the northeastern Sumy reigion also reported one death amid Russian attacks. 

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that it had captured two small villages in Donetsk oblast, and that it was attacking the mining town of Vuhledar, a Ukrainian stronghold on the frontlines.

The Defense Ministry said its forces had captured the villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka, claims that couldn't be independently verified.

The RIA state news agency also cited the Russian-installed governor of occupied parts of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, as saying that fighting was also taking place inside Vuhledar. 

The fortified mining town, which had a pre-war population of 14,000, is among the settlements anchoring Ukrainian defenses in the southern Donetsk region.

But the Ukrainian governor of the region, Vadym Filashkin, said in televised comments that the main body of Russian troops had not reached the outskirts of Vuhledar. Instead, he said reconnaissance forces had reached the area. 

"Our defenders are trying to knock them out. The town has not been captured," he said. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was also asked about reports of Russian forces encircling or advancing on Vuhledar in Moscow on Wednesday, but only responded by saying, "the dynamic is positive." 

mh/dj (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)