MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. The Kiev regime's preparations to carry out a high-profile provocation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant during UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Ukraine is nuclear blackmail, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a Solovyov Live TV broadcast on Thursday.

"This is not just a provocation, this is what we condemned as nuclear blackmail. And what else is it but a long standing provocation around a nuclear facility, a direct threat to nuclear power. This is certainly an act of nuclear blackmail," she stressed.

Zakharova noted that in this way the Ukrainian authorities are not just blackmailing one country or a specific political entity, but the entire European continent. "We are talking about nuclear energy, the whole European continent is being held hostage because this is all in the heart of Europe," she added.

"Today, science has already shown us that consequences of man-made disasters, and different tragedies at nuclear facilities have no boundaries, they only have time limits. Only time can limit the spread of these consequences," the diplomat concluded.