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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv last week. @Dankihot/(dankihot.com)

Zelenskyy rules out any 'peace' with Russia unless troops withdraw

Zelenskyy met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Erdogan today.

LAST UPDATE | 18 Aug 2022

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODOMYR Zelenskyy has said that his country will not have peace with Russia unless it withdraws its troops from Ukraine, speaking after talks with his Turkish counterpart, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Zelenskyy told reporters he was “very surprised” to hear from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Russia was “ready for some kind of peace”, adding: “First they should leave our territory and then we’ll see”.

Guterres met the leaders of Ukraine and Turkey in Lviv today following a deal reached last month that allowed the resumption of grain exports after Russia’s invasion blocked essential global supplies.

The meeting also comes a day after the head of NATO said it was “urgent” that the UN’s atomic watchdog be allowed to inspect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where a Russian occupation has sparked concerns of a nuclear accident.

Guterres warned that any damage to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine would be “suicide”, following an upsurge in fighting around the facility.

He aid he was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the plant and said it had to be demilitarised, adding: “We must tell it like it is — any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide”.

Zelesnkyy called on the United Nations to ensure security at the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

“The UN must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarisation and complete liberation from Russian troops,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader also criticised “deliberate” Russian attacks on the facility.

In his regular nightly address yesterday, Zelenskyy said Guterres had arrived and that the two would “work to get the necessary results for Ukraine”.

Guterres is slated to travel on Friday to Odessa, one of three ports involved in the grain exports deal – hammered out in July under the aegis of the UN with Ankara’s mediation.

He will then head to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Centre, the body tasked with overseeing the accord.

According to the UN, the first half of August saw 21 freighters authorised to sail under the deal carrying more than 563,000 tonnes of agricultural products, including more than 451,000 tonnes of corn.

The first wartime shipment of UN food aid for Africa reached the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday carrying 23,000 tonnes of wheat.

‘Serious threat’

Zelenskyy touched on the Zaporizhzhia plant in his address yesterday, saying Ukrainian diplomats and scientists were in “constant touch” with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the goal of sending a mission by the watchdog to the occupied nuclear facility.

“The Russian army must withdraw from the territory of the nuclear power plant and all neighbouring areas, and take away its military equipment from the plant,” he added.

“This must happen without any conditions and as soon as possible.”

Earlier in the day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had told reporters in Brussels that Russia’s seizure of the plant “poses a serious threat to the safety and the security of this facility [and] raises the risks of a nuclear accident or incident”.

Also calling for a Russian withdrawal and inspections by the IAEA, Stoltenberg accused Moscow of using “the ground around the nuclear power plant as a staging area, as a platform, to launch artillery attacks on Ukrainian forces, and this is reckless”.

Russian forces took the Zaporizhzhia plant, located in southern Ukraine, in March shortly after invading.

The plant is the largest in Europe, and the uncertainty surrounding it has fuelled fears of a nuclear accident to rival Chernobyl in 1986.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia installation.

Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom on Tuesday reported what it called an “unprecedented” cyberattack on its website, but said its operations had not been disrupted.

It added that it “was attacked from Russian territory” by a group known as “popular cyberarmy”, which used more than seven million bots to attack the website for three hours.

‘Despicable and cynical’

A Russian strike in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv yesterday hit a residential building that regional authorities said was being used as a dormitory for people with hearing impairments, killing seven people and wounding at least 16.

Nataliia Popova, an adviser to the head of the Kharkiv Regional Council, said that residents “couldn’t even hear the air alert” and “couldn’t respond to the rescuers during the rescue works”.

A spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office said that the strike was believed to have been carried out with a cruise missile, and that 20 to 40 people were inside the building when it was hit.

Zelensky condemned the attack as “despicable and cynical”, saying it “had no justification and shows the powerlessness of the aggressor”.

Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said Thursday that at least four more missiles had struck the city.

© AFP 2022

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    Mute Chonky Racoon
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    Apr 1st 2019, 7:48 PM

    Sad! If I was to hazard I guess I’d plastic has a role to play.. Bet if you opened the whale up you’d find a lot of plastic

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Apr 1st 2019, 7:56 PM

    @Chonky Racoon: that’s what it says in the article!!

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    Mute Chonky Racoon
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:34 PM

    @Colette Kearns: I didn’t read it. Big oppsies by me :)

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:37 PM

    @Chonky Racoon: while it may well have plastic in its stomach (almost definitely does, to be honest), it wouldn’t be as common with sperm whales as they are toothed whales who actually hunt. Large amounts of plastic tend to be ingested by baleen whales who filter feed and don’t actively seek out specific prey.

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:11 PM

    Very sad reading!. Magnificent creatures!, yet man is destroying their simple right of life!.

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    Mute missroisin
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    Apr 1st 2019, 7:56 PM

    Maybe one the 100 or so foreign Factory trawlers towing of the west coast of Ireland got it up in there nets and then dumped back the body and then it got washed up. That would be my guess.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:21 PM

    @missroisin: You think a trawler accidentally picked up a 40ft whale and then threw it back in? Are you for real?

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    Mute Liam Whelan
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:42 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: have you ever seen a factory ship? They’re absolutely huge, there nets are about a mile or so long and just as tall! It could quite possibly be a cause!

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    Mute Shane Hughes
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:10 PM

    @Liam Whelan: no your right. I went to the shops earlier and when I got home I found an elephant in my pocket. Must have picked it up by mistake.

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    Mute missroisin
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 5:43 AM

    @Tweety McTweeter: google annelies llena and magiris trawler , there is a massive fleet of worlds largest trawlers fishing of Ireland and yes you would fit 10 in there nets . So sort your comments out with facts I never said a trawler, I said a super trawler.

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    Mute dowthebow
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:16 PM

    @missroisin: well you didn’t say super you said foreign…

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:40 PM

    @dowthebow: Well she said factory trawlers, which can have nets spanning close to 1km. So the point still stands.

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    Mute Pixie McMullen
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:01 PM

    Don`t rule out Sonar from Submarines from the neighbours, especially in the present climate and friction between countries going on around the world

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    Mute Billy McNamara
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:19 PM

    Could be just old age,and the animal knowing it’s end was near.Sperm Whales feed very deep on squid and unlikely plastic would be the cause in this instance.Many animals do die from old age,even in this polluted age.

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:23 PM

    @Billy McNamara: I agree Billy but unfortunately plastic has been found recently at depths only a sub can dive. Was on BBC over the weekend. Still devastating for the whales.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Apr 1st 2019, 10:16 PM

    A lot of conspiracy theories floating about. Whales aren’t immortal y’know.

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:42 PM

    @Paraic: Conspiracies, or just theories? Absolutely could have just been a old whale though, that is true.

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:43 PM

    @Paraic: Scratch that. I see the conspiracy theories now!

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    Mute Johnny Conway
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:23 PM

    So the royal navy is still patrolling our waters in the west killing Whales with there sonar again

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    Mute The Great Unwashed
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 2:17 PM

    @Johnny Conway:
    Were whales immortal before submarines were invented?

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    Mute Angry_Man41
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:05 PM

    Ya, would b interesting to open this creature up and see how much plastic is in him. Would b shocked if it was very little.
    He may have died of natural causes, but plastic a curse for these creatures

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:15 PM

    @Angry_Man41: I very much doubt that an autopsy will be carried out €€€

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    Mute Who cares?
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:32 PM

    @T Jay O’Mea: I’ll go down and cut him open and have a look if someone pays my diesel!

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    Mute Sean O' Donovan
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    Apr 1st 2019, 10:11 PM

    @Who cares?: Time to set up a Go-Fund me page

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    Mute Denis McClean
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 12:26 AM

    There might be plastic and there might not. Fact is, a very distant mammalian cousin died but it’s a bonanza for those who will and should be free to feed on the carcass. Circle of life and hopefully nothing more. As the title says, nothing sinister, though they can pong for a while. Glorious creature.

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    Mute jamesdecay
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    Apr 1st 2019, 11:11 PM

    A stinking, rotting carcass washed up on the beach is a sad but fitting metaphor for Brexit.

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    Mute OpenLitterMap
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    Apr 1st 2019, 10:18 PM

    If you want to do something about plastic pollution, please share data on litter anywhere @ openlittermap.com – it’s like Pokémon Go for Tidy towns!

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    Mute GᗩᒪᒪEᖇY ᗩᑎᗪ ᗰᑌSEᑌᗰ ᑭᖇO-ᒪIᖴE STᗩᖴᖴ Iᑎ IᖇEᒪᗩᑎᗪ
    Favourite GᗩᒪᒪEᖇY ᗩᑎᗪ ᗰᑌSEᑌᗰ ᑭᖇO-ᒪIᖴE STᗩᖴᖴ Iᑎ IᖇEᒪᗩᑎᗪ
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 11:08 AM

    A pity. Such a majestic animal.
    Ireland has been suffering from a low Sperm Whale count for some time now.

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    Mute this_is_ireland
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    Apr 1st 2019, 11:01 PM

    Premature

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