Putin says inspectors can examine nuclear plant in Ukraine
Russian president Vladimir Putin has agreed that inspectors should visit Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as fears grow over the safety of the site.
Kyiv and Moscow continue to accuse each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine, stoking international fears of a catastrophe.
The Kremlin said yesterday Mr put in had told french counterpart Em manuel Macron in their first phone conversation since May 28 that Ukrainian shelling around the plant “raised the threat of a largescale catastrophe that could lead to radioactive contamination of large territories”.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility in Ukraine’s south has been controlled by Russian forces since shortly after the invasion began on february 24.
Ukraine has accused Russia of storing troops and weapons at the Zaporizhzhia plant and using its grounds to launch strikes against Ukrainian-controlled territory. Ukrainian officials and military analysts say Moscow’s forces have cynically employed the plant as a shield, knowing the Ukrainians would be hesitant to fire back.
Russia has denied the accusations and, in turn, accused Ukrainian forces of repeatedly shelling the plant.
The french presidency said in a statement mr mac ron“underlined his concerns” regarding the situation at the Zap oriz hz hi a plant and expressed his support for the deployment of an international atomic energy
Agency (IAEA) mission to the site “as soon as possible”.
Mr Putin agreed to the mission’s deployment under the discussed terms, according to the French statement. The Kremlin said “the Russian side reaffirmed its readiness to offer the necessary assistance to the agency’s experts”.
Following a visit to Ukraine on Thursday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Mr Zelensky had asked him to ensure Russia removed weapons stored at the plant as an “important step for world peace”.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-backed chief of temporary administration for the Russiacontrolled part of the Zaporizhzhia region, said a mission from the IAEA could approach the plant from Ukrainian-held territory, a shift in Moscow’s position that previously had suggested the agency’s mission should travel to the plant from Crimea.