UN secretary general calls for peaceful resolution to Ukraine conflict amid situation around Kakhovka HPP
UNITED NATIONS, New York. June 6 (Interfax) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that the UN did not have its own information about the circumstances in which the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was damaged, and called in the current situation for a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict.
"I appeal for a just peace, in line with the UN Charter, international law, and the resolutions of the General Assembly," Guterres told reporters, adding that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure must be stopped.
The United Nations "had no access to independent information to verify how the catastrophe had occurred," he said, adding that the UN and its institutions, humanitarian agencies, were offering support and the required assistance.
Russia insists on discussing the situation around the Kakhovka HPP at the United Nations Security Council, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said.
"We will convene a UN Security Council meeting," he said, criticizing Western countries' assumptions that Russia may be responsible for what happened to the Kakhovka HPP.
The Kakhovka HPP's valves and other surface structures were destroyed by Ukrainian attacks in the early hours of Tuesday, which caused an uncontrolled discharge of the Dnieper river's water from the Kakhovka reservoir downstream. The water level is rising in communities along the bank, and flooded houses are being evacuated. Water levels are expected to go down within 72 hours.
An emergency was declared in Novaya Kakhovka.
The Kakhovka HPP, in operation since the 1950s, regulates the Dnieper's water flow for the purpose of power generation, irrigation and water supply to arid regions of southern Ukraine, as well as navigation between Kherson and Zaporozhye. It is where the North Crimean Canal, which provides the peninsula with the Dnieper's water, begins. Currently, the facility is not generating electricity.