Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday of the “catastrophic consequences” of the attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and occupied by Russian forces, the Kremlin said.
In a telephone interview with Mr Macron, Vladimir Putin drew attention to “the regular Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhia power plant sites, including deposits of radioactive waste, which could lead to serious consequences,” according to a statement from the Kremlin.
The Russian President also informed his French counterpart of “the measures taken by Russian specialists to ensure the security of the factory and stress the need to put pressure on the Kyiv authorities so that the bombings targeting the factory stop immediately.”
The two leaders also expressed their desire to “cooperate in a non-politicized manner on the situation around the Zaporizhia Power Plant, with the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to the press release.
The interview took place at the initiative of the French president, according to the Kremlin.
During the phone call, Vladimir Putin once again denounced Western arms shipments to the Kyiv regime, which, according to him, were used in the “intensive bombing of the civilian infrastructure of the Donbass cities”, the mining basin in eastern Ukraine.
The two leaders actually spoke by phone on August 19 about the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Located in southern Ukraine and controlled by Russian forces, this factory has been bombed several times in recent weeks, with Moscow and Kiev accusing each other of these strikes.
This situation raised the specter of a major catastrophe similar to the one that occurred at Chernobyl in 1986.
On Sunday, Ukraine announced the closure of the sixth and last reactor in operation at the Zaporizhia Power Plant, explaining that it was necessary to cool it.
