On Friday, Russia blocked the adoption of a joint statement following a four-week UN nuclear disarmament treaty meeting, with Moscow condemning the political aspects of what it said was the text.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), reviewed every five years by 191 signatories, aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, promote general disarmament, and promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Countries have gathered at UN headquarters in New York for a month of negotiations since August 1, including a final meeting that was postponed for hours on Friday. Finally, Gustavo Zlauvinen of Argentina, the chairman of the meeting, said there was “no way to reach an agreement” after Russia objected to the text.

Russian representative Igor Vishnevetsky said the final draft text, which was more than 30 pages long, lacked balance. “Our delegation has major objections to certain passages that are overtly political,” he said, adding that Russia was not the only country to dispute the text. According to sources close to the talks, Russia is particularly opposed to the Russian military’s occupation of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

The latest draft text expresses “serious concerns” about military activity around Ukrainian power plants, including Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s loss of control over these sites and the negative impact on security. During the meeting, the signatories discussed several other hot topics, including Iran’s nuclear program and North Korea’s nuclear tests. At the last review conference in 2015, the two sides failed to agree on substantive issues.

At the opening of this year’s conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world faced a “nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War”. “Today, humanity’s departure from nuclear annihilation is just a misunderstanding, a miscalculation,” Guterres said.