WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Sunday that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, adding that was the reason it blocked a nuclear non-proliferation treaty deal’s final draft.
“The Russian Federation alone decided to block consensus on a final document at the conclusion of the Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Russia did so in order to block language that merely acknowledged the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
The statement comes after Russia blocked an agreement on Friday on the final draft of a review of the UN treaty considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament over criticism of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
