By KYIV. Nov 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the territory of Zaporizhia NPP, the IAEA to send missions to all Ukrainian nuclear power plants, and the G-19 members to force Russia to abandon nuclear threats.
“No one has the right to blackmail the world with a radioactive disaster. This is an axiom. However, in front of the eyes of the whole world, Russia has turned our Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant into a radioactive bomb that can explode at any moment," he said on Tuesday, speaking via video link at the G-20 summit.
"I consider as criminal even a hypothetical possibility of such a scenario! Radiation safety must be restored. The IAEA has already provided respective recommendations, confirming all the risks that we have repeatedly raised," he also said.
Russia, Zelensky said, "must immediately withdraw all its militants from the territory of the Zaporizhia NPP. The station must be immediately transferred to the control of the IAEA and the Ukrainian personnel. The normal connection of the station to the power grid must be restored immediately so that nothing threatens the stability of the reactors."
"We proposed that IAEA missions are sent to all Ukrainian nuclear plants – four of them, 15 nuclear units in total. Plus the Chornobyl plant, which has been shut down and is under conservation. Such missions can verify that any hostile activity against Ukrainian nuclear facilities has indeed ceased," he said.
According to Zelensky, Russia can start the demilitarization of Zaporizhia NPP tomorrow if it is really ready to restore the radiation safety it has violated.
"The same goes for the crazy threats of nuclear weapons that Russian officials resort to. There are and cannot be any excuses for nuclear blackmail. And I thank you, dear G-19, for making this clear. However, please use all your power to make Russia abandon nuclear threats," Zelensky said.
In his opinion, "the basis for such efforts can be the Budapest Memorandum and respective capabilities of the signatory states."
