Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his government to seize Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, as the U. N. nuclear watchdog warned that the site’s source of force was “extremely fragile. “
However, the head of Ukraine’s national energy company announced that he would take over the plant, which has a half-foreign interest due to the possibility of a nuclear crisis after bombings in the region for which Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other.
Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in March shortly after invading Ukraine, but the Ukrainian labor force continued to function.
The plant is located in Ukraine’s southern region, also known as Zaporizhzhia, one of four regions that President Vladimir Putin officially incorporated into Russia on Wednesday in a move condemned in Kyiv as an illegal land seizure.
“The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is now located on the territory of the Russian Federation and will therefore be operated under the supervision of our corresponding agencies,” RIA news firm quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying.
Putin subsequently signed a decree designating the ZNPP as “federal property. “
Russian nuclear operator Rosenergoatom said it would conduct an assessment of how to repair damage to the plant’s infrastructure and move all existing Ukrainian workers to a new Russian organization.
“The new operational organization is designed to ensure the operation of the nuclear power plant and the professional activities of the existing plant personnel,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine’s national nuclear energy corporation said he was in contact with the ZNPP and suggested to staff there not to sign any documents with its Russian occupiers.
“All other decisions related to the operation of the station will be made at Energoatom’s head office,” Petro Kotin said in a video posted on messaging app Telegram.
“We will continue to paint in accordance with Ukrainian law, within the Ukrainian electricity system, inside Energoatom,” Kotin said.
His comments followed the brief detention by Russian forces last weekend of Ukrainian ZNPP director Ihor Murashev. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later said Murashev had been released but would return to his old job.
IAEA leader Rafael Grossi is recently in Ukraine for further consultations on “the agreement and implementation as soon as possible of a nuclear security and defense coverage zone around the ZNPP,” the UN firm said.
On Wednesday, Grossi reiterated his considerations about strength to the plant.
“The scenario of external force remains incredibly precarious. Right now we have an external force but it is, I would say, fragile. There is a line that feeds the plant,” he told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London by telephone.
Grossi is also scheduled to make a stopover in Moscow this week, and Russia’s state-run TASS news firm said it could also make a stopover at the ZNPP after making a stopover last month with equipment that suffered damage from shelling in the vicinity.
Before Russia’s invasion, the plant produced about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electrical power and nearly one-fifth of the power produced through the country’s nuclear power plants.
Russia moved to annex Zaporizhzhia and three other regions after holding what it called referendums: votes denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive. Moscow does not belong entirely to any of the four regions.