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Russia on Monday asked countries with influence over the Ukrainian authorities to use it to prevent attacks on the facilities of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, currently under Russian military control.
“We hope that the countries that have absolute influence over the Ukrainian leadership will use this influence to rule out the continuation of these attacks,” Kremlin (Russian Presidency) spokesman Dmitri Peskov was quoted as saying by the Spanish news agency EFE.
Peskov said that “the attacks on the nuclear power plant by the Armed Forces of Ukraine represent a extremely dangerous actionwhich, if worsened, can have catastrophic consequences for vast territories, including the territory of Europe”.
After several attacks on the nuclear plant on Friday, Moscow and kyiv accused each other of compromising the security of the facility, the largest of its kind in Europe.
The Ukrainian operator of the Energoatom nuclear power plant on Monday accused Russian troops of laying mines at the plant as a form of blackmail.
The Ukrainian company said on the Telegram social network that the eventual explosion of the plant is an attempt by Russian troops to warn of the consequences of a recapture by the Ukrainian army of the territories invaded by Russia.
In a video message, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Russian forces “have created another extremely dangerous situation for all of Europe.”
“Any bombing of this facility is an open and flagrant crime, an act of terror,” Zelensky said, insisting on calling the international community to consider Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
Russia, which has controlled the plant since March, questioned these statements and accused kyiv of promoting the “nuclear terrorism”.
“Ukraine’s attacks on nuclear facilities can be qualified under international law as acts of nuclear terrorism,” Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev wrote on the Telegram social network.
Kosachev said the Ukrainian attack at a time when the UN is holding a conference on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons “calls into question Ukraine’s compliance with its commitments on the safety of nuclear facilities.”
Pro-Russian authorities in the Zaporizhia region, partially occupied by the Russian army, on Sunday accused the Ukrainian army of attacking the nuclear power plant, damaging power lines and industrial buildings in the complex.
Source: Observadora
