Zelenskiy tells IAEA's Grossi: Russia must leave Zaporizhzhia plant

28/3/2023 12:09

        Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency on Monday that safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station
        could not be guaranteed until Russian troops left the facility.
        
        The president, quoted by his website, said he met Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station - northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant.
        
        Russian troops occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station, in the early weeks of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and each side has repeatedly accused the other of shelling the facility.
        
        Zelenskiy was quoted as telling 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.
        
        "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.