In a message posted on Twitter, Volodymyr Zelensky reported that he had spoken with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, about the situation on the ground, “in particular about the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia.”
“Russian nuclear terrorism requires a stronger response from the international community,” he said, calling for new sanctions to be imposed on the country under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.
In this post, Zelensky further emphasized the importance of releasing the “Macro Financial Aid Package to Ukraine as soon as possible”.
Moscow and Kiev yesterday accused each other of compromising the integrity of the Zaporiya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, expressed his “grave concern” over the bombing of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant the day before yesterday.
The head of the UN nuclear energy agency called putting the plant in danger “totally unacceptable” and said targeting it militarily was “playing with fire” and could have “potentially catastrophic consequences”.
“I strongly and urgently appeal to all parties to exercise maximum containment in the vicinity of this important nuclear facility, which includes six reactors,” he wrote.
Grossi again offered the IAEA’s willingness to undertake a field verification mission and “prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.”
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency in June expressed his desire to visit the Russian-controlled plant, but Ukraine strongly criticized the plans, claiming that the Argentine official’s trip to the United Nations could be understood as legitimizing the Russian occupation.
The diplomat insisted that the mission was “critical” to stabilizing the situation at the nuclear plant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia in a video message of “re-creating a very dangerous situation for the whole of Europe”: “they bombed the Zaporia nuclear power plant twice.”
Moscow, which has practically controlled this facility since the first days of its military campaign in Ukraine, rejected the statements and described Kyiv, for its part, as a promoter of “nuclear terrorism”.
“Ukraine’s attacks on nuclear facilities can be described under international law as acts of nuclear terrorism,” Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev said on the social network Telegram.
Pro-Russian authorities in the Zaporya region, partially occupied by the Russian army, yesterday accused Ukrainian forces of attacking the nuclear power plant with artillery and damaging electrical lines and industrial buildings at the plant.
The attack led to the shutdown of one of the nuclear blocs after a power outage.
* With agencies
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