Macron and Putin, in a phone conversation on Friday, discussed the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia Power Plant, which Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of endangering. Both require independent examination, according to the NTB.
Shooting and continuous attacks around the power plant.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had approved the travel of IAEA experts to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant from the Ukrainian side.
Large-scale catastrophe risk
So far, the visit of a delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency has been prevented due to disagreements over how to travel to Zaporizhia. Ukraine believes that crossing through the territories occupied by Russia would legitimize the occupation.
According to the Kremlin, Putin stressed that “the systematic Ukrainian artillery attacks on the Zaporizhzhya power plant area create the risk of a large-scale catastrophe that could lead to radiation in large areas.”
Ukraine, for its part, accuses Russia of attacking the power plant.
Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone together on Friday and discussed the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia Power Plant. Photo: AFP/NTB
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The two parties request that the International Atomic Energy Agency be allowed to send experts to inspect the power plant as soon as possible. Macron supports sending experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the power plant, on terms agreed by Ukraine and the United Nations.
Russia occupied the nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, in March, and fighting around the plant recently has raised concerns about a nuclear catastrophe.
Demands that the United Nations take responsibility
The Ukrainian Atomic Energy Agency claims that Russia plans to shut down the nuclear power plant. The United Nations asks not to do so.
Attack them themselves
The Nuclear Energy Agency Energoatom believes that Russia is planning a major provocation in the region, she wrote Sky News.
On Thursday, Russia threatened to shut down the nuclear power plant if Ukraine did not stop shooting at it, and accused Ukraine of launching a mock Russian attack on the plant. The Ukrainian authorities refused to do so.
On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that the United Nations take responsibility for security around the power plant and ensure its disarmament and liberation from Russian occupation. Russia was again accused of deliberately shooting at the power plant.
Tension surrounding the power plant has raised international fears of a nuclear catastrophe if things go wrong, and the situation was an important topic when Zelensky met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv on Thursday.
– It is clear that the current from Zaporizhzhya belongs to Ukraine. Guterres said during his visit to the Ukrainian city of Odessa on Friday that this principle should be fully respected.
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