U.S. backs call for demilitarized zone around Ukraine nuclear plant
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The United States on Thursday backed Ukraine's call to establish a demilitarized zone around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, where fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces has raised concerns of a possible nuclear disaster, Reuters reports.
"Fighting near a nuclear plant is dangerous and irresponsible — and we continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations at or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine," a State Department spokesperson said.
Earlier Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate halt to military operations around the facility, Europe's largest nuclear power plant. Russia seized the facility in March. Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for fresh shelling.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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