The safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is being held hostage by the Russian troops, could not be guaranteed until they left, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his nightly video address on Monday.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been occupied by Russian troops, who have shown no inclination to relinquish control, since the early weeks of the invasion of Ukraine.
The fears of a nuclear disaster skyrocketed due to the routine shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant that Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of, additionally enticed by the worries of a water shortage and losing power in the cooling systems due to the fighting around it.
Decrying the Russian presence at the plant as “radiation blackmail,” Zelensky emphasized that holding a nuclear power station hostage for more than a year is the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of nuclear power in Europe or the world.
He said in comments posted on the presidential website that, without an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Zaporizhzhia, any initiative on restoring safety and security is doomed to failure.
Earlier in the day, Zelensky met with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station, northeast of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, where IAEA has stationed one of its teams since September.
Grossi, who is due to visit Zaporizhzhia NPP again this week, has repeatedly called for a safety zone around it but his efforts to negotiate it with both sides have been to no avail, as he admitted himself in January.
After referendums slammed globally as shams, Zaporizhzhia become one of four regions Russia claimed to annex in September and Moscow views the NPP as its territory, which Kyiv denies, accusing Moscow of using the plant as a shield for troops and military hardware.
