MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. The Russian military’s control over the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is a key to the regions’ nuclear security, leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party and Chairman of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said on Friday.
"The Russian military’s ongoing control over the Zaporozhye NPP is a key to nuclear security in the region, it’s obvious. The IAEA sees the need to send a mission to the Zaporozhye NPP and Russia is ready to provide full assistance, which has been made clear. However, Ukraine must stop its attacks on the nuclear facility. This is what the G7 countries should be concerned about," he wrote on Telegram.
According to Slutsky, otherwise, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his Western sponsors will have to bear responsibility for a potential nuclear disaster.
The senior lawmaker slammed an initiative to transfer control over the NPP to Ukraine to ensure access for IAEA inspectors as "sheer mockery." "It is even similar to making concessions to ‘nuclear terrorists.’ All the statements that the foreign ministrers of G7 countries have made in support of these demands are nothing but attempts to sponsor nuclear terrorism," Slutsky noted.
The Zaporozhye NPP in the city of Energodar is controlled by Russian troops. The Ukrainian military carried out a series of attacks on the facility in the past several days, which particularly involved drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers. Most attacks were repelled by air defenses but some infrastructure facilities and the nuclear waste storage area were hit.
The NPP, the largest in Europe, has six reactors with a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts. The facility currently operates at 70% of its full capacity because of excess electricity production in the liberated areas of the region.