n this file photo, international flags flutter outside of the UN headquarters during the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria on Sept 10, 2018. (JOE KLAMAR / AFP)
VIENNA – The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors on Thursday passed a resolution calling on Russia to end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
The resolution is the second on Ukraine crisis passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's board, and their content is very similar, though the first in March preceded Russian forces taking control of Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.
Russia's mission to the IAEA called the text anti-Russian and said "the Achilles' heel of this resolution" was that it said nothing about the "systematic shelling" of the plant
Both resolutions were proposed by Canada and Poland on behalf of Ukraine, which is not on the board, the IAEA's top policy-making body that meets more than once a year.
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The text, which says the board calls on Russia to "immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine", was passed with 26 votes in favor, two against and seven abstentions, diplomats at the closed-door meeting said.
The text was later posted on the IAEA's website.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine.
Russia's mission to the IAEA called the text anti-Russian and said "the Achilles' heel of this resolution" was that it said nothing about the "systematic shelling" of the plant.
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"The reason is simple – this shelling is carried out by Ukraine, which is supported and shielded by Western countries in every possible way," it said in a statement.