Ukraine Plant Must Be Seized From Russia, Nuclear Chief Says
- Kotin says Zaporizhzhia security zone is no longer plausible
- Russian occupation seen posing grave risk to nuclear power
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images
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Ukraine must seize Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant back from Russia by force as efforts to establish a security zone around it evaporate, Kyiv’s top nuclear official said.
Petro Kotin, the president of Ukraine’s nuclear utility Energoatom, cast doubt on calls by the International Atomic Energy Agency for Ukrainian and Russian authorities to impose a security perimeter around the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine. The six reactors, captured by Russian forces in the first week of the Feb. 24 invasion, have been subject to artillery and missile attacks, raising the risk of a nuclear emergency.