Russia holds nuclear plant hostage By Reuters

By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency that safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station could not be guaranteed until Russian troops left the facility.

The president met Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Monday at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station – northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Russian forces took over the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest, in March 2022 in the early weeks of the war, and the Kremlin has shown no inclination to relinquish control over it. Russian officials say they want to connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Russian grid.

“Without an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and staff from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and adjacent areas, any initiatives on restoring nuclear safety and security are doomed to failure,” the presidential website quoted Zelenskiy as saying.

    Russia and Ukraine routinely accuse each other of shelling the facility and running the risk of a major accident. Fighting around the plant and worries its cooling systems could lose power have raised fears of a nuclear disaster.

Grossi said he and Zelenskiy had a “rich exchange” on the protection of the plant and its staff. A team of monitors from the U.N. agency has been stationed at the plant since September.

The IAEA chief has repeatedly called for a safety zone around Zaporizhzhia and is due to visit it again this week. Grossi has tried to negotiate with both sides but said in January that brokering a deal was getting harder.

Zelenskiy told Grossi that staff at the Zaporizhzhia plant were under constant pressure from Russian occupying forces, who he said were failing to uphold safety rules and interfering in technological processes, his office said. Kyiv has accused Moscow of using the plant as a shield for troops and military hardware.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four regions that Moscow claimed to annex in September after referendums denounced internationally as shams. Russia views the plant as its territory, which Ukraine denies.

Russia has accused Ukraine of putting the safety of the plant at risk. Russia said last month the…