There are signs that Russian forces may be preparing to abandon the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which they seized in March, the chairman of Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company said on Sunday.
Such a withdrawal would be a game changer in the partially occupied region of Zaporizhia in the southeast of the country, where the front line has barely moved for months. Because the repeated bombardments around the plant have raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
“In the last few weeks, in fact, we are getting reports of signs that they may be preparing to abandon the (power plant),” Petro Kotin, the president of Energoatom, told state television.
“First of all, there is a lot of information in the Russian media that it would be worth abandoning the (power plant) and perhaps handing over control to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” he added. “Looks like they’re packing up and stealing everything they can get.”*
it’s still too soon
For months Russia and Ukraine, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986, have accused each other of bombing the Zaporizhia power plant, which no longer produces power.
Petro Kotin said it was too early to talk about leaving. “We don’t see it now, but they are getting ready (to leave),” he said. “All (Ukrainian) personnel are prohibited from passing through checkpoints and entering Ukrainian (controlled) territory.”
The IAEA chief met with a Russian delegation in Istanbul on November 23 to discuss establishing a buffer zone around the plant, the largest in Europe, to prevent a nuclear disaster.
Source: BFM TV
