On Wednesday 31 August, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and several European foreign ministers underlined their concern about the situation in the vicinity of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
On the same day, the Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of bombing the town where the plant is located and the road to be used by IAEA inspectors to reach the plant, which they are due to visit from Thursday.
At the end of the Gymnich, the High Representative explained that the ministers had discussed “the catastrophic impact this war could have if Russia continues to play around Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, particularly in Zaporizhia”.
The Russians are “playing with nuclear security”, said Mr Borrell, who once again called for the immediate and complete demilitarisation of the vicinity of the nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe. “We can’t play war games in the vicinity of a site like this”, he argued.
Lithuanian minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said “we have never been so close to a nuclear disaster as we are now”. He hoped that the discussion on the establishment of a peacekeeping force to ensure security around the plant would be resumed.
For his Danish counterpart, Jeppe Kofod, the situation in Zaporizhia is “another irresponsible act by Russia to use the nuclear site as a means to attack Ukraine and station troops there”.
Support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia
In addition to nuclear safety, the ministers discussed political, military, economic and humanitarian support for Ukraine. In particular, they agreed to speed up work on the parameters of an EU military assistance mission for Ukraine “in order to make a decision on this issue as soon as possible”, Mr Borrell announced. Earlier in the day, the head of Irish diplomacy, Simon Coveney, hoped that “by the end of next month we can be in a position to formulate” what the mission might look like.
The ministers also stressed that they should remain united in their response to Russia’s war and malicious global behaviour. While, according to an EU source, the subject of sanctions was not raised during the debates - apart from the issue of visas (see other news) - in front of the media, several ministers called for increased pressure on Russia.
Mr Kofod believed it was necessary to look at how to increase the pressure on Russia, be it in terms of sanctions, aid to Ukraine, supplying arms to Ukraine or the fight against impunity.
Estonian minister Urmas Reinsalu called for sanctions to reach a “new height” with a complete halt to energy trade, new trade measures, a new list of targeted sanctions or the end of electronic banking services for all Russian banks. He added that the current sanctions were not sufficient.
In a document made available to the ministers and which EUROPE was able to view, France and Germany considered it important to maintain and broaden the sanctions “against the Russian political, military and economic elites”. “We will also continue to strategically target the Russian economy with new economic and financial sanctions to weaken the regime’s financial capacity to wage war. This must be supported by a broader international effort to align with third countries (beyond the G7), closing loopholes, strengthening our efforts to prevent circumvention and adopting new targeted measures”, the document says. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)