Zelenskyj: Russia has to leave Zaporizhia nuclear plant

At a meeting with the head of the UN nuclear regulatory agency IAEA, Rafael Grossi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed the need for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. “Without an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and personnel from the Zaporizhia NPP and neighboring areas, all initiatives to restore nuclear safety are doomed to fail,” Zelenskyy quoted the government website as saying.

The plant’s personnel are under constant pressure from the Russian occupying forces, who are not complying with safety regulations and are interfering in the technical processes. In his late-night video address to the Ukrainian population, Zelenskyy called the Russian crackdown “radioactive blackmail” and the worst incident in nuclear power history.

“No other terrorist has plumbed such abysses with the cynicism that Russia displays, always reaching new lows.” The longer the Russian occupation of the power plant lasts, the greater the threat to the security of Ukraine and the whole of Europe.

Zelenskyj has also held his military briefing with the general staff outside of the capital Kiev for the first time. “We discussed the general situation in the front areas, strengthening and protecting our borders along the entire front – from the Kherson region to the Kharkiv region,” he said in his daily video address on Monday. He did not provide details regarding the results of the meeting.

The briefing took place in the industrial city of Dnipro, where there are many armaments factories. In addition, Zelenskyi visited Zaporizhia and the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which are often exposed to Russian rocket attacks. “Today Russian rockets hit residential buildings in Zaporizhia,” said Zelenskyy. These were “burned, unfortunately partly destroyed”. Zelenskyj once more accused Moscow of deliberate terror once morest the civilian population. “But our soldiers, whom we visited in Zaporizhia today, know exactly what they need to drive the enemy out of our country.”