Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron of the “catastrophic consequences” of the attacks on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest in Europe and controlled by Russian troops.
“The Russian President, in a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, warned that repeated Ukrainian strikes on the facilities of the Zaporozhye plant, including radioactive waste storage facilities, could have catastrophic consequences,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin briefed his French counterpart on “measures taken by Russian experts to ensure the safety of the station,” stressing “the need to put pressure on the Kyiv authorities to stop attacks on the station immediately,” Agence France-Presse reported. .
On the other hand, the two presidents expressed their intention to “cooperate in a non-politicized manner with regard to the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant with the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the statement said.
The Kremlin noted that “negotiations were conducted on the initiative of Macron.”
During the call, Putin denounced “the West’s supply of weapons to Kyiv that are being used to massively bomb civilian infrastructure in the cities of Donbass,” referring to the Russian-controlled mineral-rich region in eastern Ukraine.
The two presidents had previously held telephone conversations about the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant on the nineteenth of August.
The Russian-controlled Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is located in southern Ukraine, and its site has been repeatedly bombed in recent weeks, for which Moscow and Kyiv blame each other.
These events led to fears of a nuclear catastrophe similar to that which occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986.
