Friday’s alleged kidnapping came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated his war in Ukraine and took it into a damaging new phase by annexing four Ukrainian regions that Moscow fully or partially controls and increasing threats of nuclear force.
In an imaginable attempt to secure Moscow’s control over the newly annexed territory, Russian forces captured the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Ihor Murashov, around four o’clock on Friday afternoon, Ukrainian state-owned nuclear company Energoatom said.
Putin on Friday signed treaties with Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, adding dominance around the nuclear power plant.
Russian Energoatom troops stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him, and then took him to an undisclosed location.
“His detention through (Russia) endangers the security of Ukraine and Europe’s nuclear power plant,” Energoatom President Petro Kotin said, which does not facilitate the director’s prompt release.
Russia did not acknowledge seizing the plant manager.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that Russia had told it that “the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been detained to answer questions. “
The Vienna-based IAEA said, “in accordance with its nuclear protection mandate,” that it is “actively explaining and looking towards a swift and acceptable solution to this matter. “
The power plant was continuously caught in the crossfire of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian technicians continued to operate the force plant after Russian troops took it. Its last reactor was shut down in September as a precaution, as constant shelling broke the plant’s lines of force.
The plant is a strategic trophy for Russia and has aroused global fear as the only nuclear force plant caught up in modern warfare. The active struggle nearby means that it will start generating electric power in the short term, even if Russia establishes its own administration. .
It is like a city in its own right, with about 11,000 employees before the war. While many fled in the midst of the fighting, others remained under the protection of their radioactive structures and tissues.
Energoatom spokesmen told The Associated Press on Saturday that workers at the Zaporizhzhia power plant are being forced to submit requests to inform Rosatom, the Russian nuclear force giant that operates Russian nuclear power plants.
Murashov opposed handing over the Zaporizhzhia plant to Rosatom, but Energoatom spokesmen may simply not verify that this is the reason for his abduction.
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Murashov had to comply with protection codes, coordinated all paints at the factory, had certain protocols followed and reported to Kyiv, according to Energoatom spokesmen. The Ukrainian government appointed him to run the factory several days before Russian troops arrived in Ukraine.
However, Energoatom said it had not lost its dating with the plant, and all parameters of its paintings were still reported to Kyiv.