Conflicts & War

Zelenskyy calls for more Russia sanctions in Japan parliament speech

Tokyo, Mar 23 (EFE).- Heaping international pressure on Russia will help restore peace in the region, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Japanese lawmakers in an unprecedented foreign address to the country’s parliament Wednesday.

“We will find a way to push Russia to agree to a peaceful solution,” Zelenskyy said, urging Japan to keep up its regime of sanctions against Moscow in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The president accused Russia of turning the Chernobyl nuclear power plant into a “battlefield” and warned that Moscow could use chemical weapons in Ukraine during his video-conference speech to both chambers of Japan’s parliament, known as the National Diet.

“Russia has converted the accident-hit nuclear installations into a war zone. Imagine how much time it will take to clean the area,” Zelenskyy said.

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear catastrophe in history, followed by Japan’s Fukushima accident following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

He called on the international community to intensify sanctions on Russia and for reforms to take place in the United Nations and its Security Council, which he said were not working to prevent the Russian invasion.

“I think Japan can contribute in this sense,” he added. EFE

ahg-yk/jt/ks

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