Nuclear and food security discussed on second day of Ukraine peace summit held in Switzerland

This article was originally published in English

Working groups are expected to discuss Nuclear Safety, food security And Humanitarian aid On the second day of the two-day International Peace Summit on Ukraine.

More than 90 countries, along with representatives of international organisations, take part in the summit at the tourist complex of Bürgenstock in central Switzerland.

Nuclear security has worried European leaders since the early days of the Russian invasion.

Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in March 2022 and remain in occupation of the site to this day.

It is the largest nuclear facility in Europe and before the war supplied 30% of Ukraine’s electricityBut from September 2022, it has stopped generating energy for the national grid.

But intermittent fighting continues around the plant and Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said, The warning was issued in April About what An accident was dangerously close,

The IAEA has a rotating team of inspectors on site since late 2022 and Grossi warned that These “reckless attacks must stop immediately,

He also said that “two years of war are having an impact on nuclear safety at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant,” and that “Each of the IAEA’s seven pillars of nuclear security has been compromised,

In February 2022, the Russian military also took control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of a devastating nuclear disaster in 1986, but abandoned it in March.

food security

In February, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to the largest military-related increase in global food insecurity in at least a century.”

Ukraine has been dubbed the “bread basket of Europe” And its fertile soils place it among the world’s top three grain exporters, but these supply lines have been massively disrupted.

Russia has frequently attacked the Ukrainian agricultural sector with attacks on production infrastructure, agricultural land, farms and warehouses.

Russia’s occupation of the Crimean Peninsula And this Black Sea Fleet Its location also influenced maritime supply routes through the Bosphorus and the Mediterranean Sea.

In July 2022, Turkey and the United Nations negotiated a deal between Russia and Ukraine that allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain through three Black Sea ports. About 33 million metric tons of grain was exported under the deal, but Russia withdrew in July last year, citing dissatisfaction with the terms governing its exports, and the deal fell apart.

Last year, Ukraine It has become the most mined country in the world, with hidden weapons disrupting agricultural productivity.

In March last year, the European Union, the Kiev School of Economics, the United Nations and the World Bank estimated that the total cost of losses and damage to the Ukrainian agricultural sector was 37.5 billion euros.

Zelensky: “History is being made”

On the first day of the summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky predicted that “history was being made” with the aim of taking the first steps toward peace, though experts and critics do not expect major progress as Russia is not attending the meeting.

In a brief statement to reporters alongside Swiss President Viola Amherd at the start of the summit, Zelenskyy called the meeting a success: “We have managed to bring back to the world the idea that Through joint efforts war can be prevented and a just peace can be established,

Although his country’s Russian president did not attend Vladimir Putin On Friday, the two countries took the rare step of explicitly stating their terms for ending the war. But their proposals included no new demands and Kiev called them “manipulative” and “absurd”.

On Friday, Putin told senior Russian diplomats and lawmakers he would give the order “immediately” Stop the fire and the conversation will begin If Ukraine abandons its attempt to join NATO and began to do withdraw your troops The four territories illegally occupied by Moscow in 2022.

Although Putin’s demands are not a good start for Ukraine, Kiev is currently unable to negotiate from a position of strength, according to analysts.