Russia took ownership of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

Russia has officially taken over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which it has occupied militarily since early March, according to a decree signed by its president, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday.

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Shortly after the announcement, Rafael Grassi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who was scheduled to travel to Kyiv and Moscow this week, announced he was leaving for the Ukrainian capital to discuss the establishment of a protection zone around the plant. .

The latter, Europe’s largest, is located in the Zaporizhia region, one of the Ukrainian territories Russia officially annexed last week and not far from the dividing line between territories controlled by Kyiv and those occupied by Moscow.

“The government must ensure that the plant’s nuclear installations (…) are considered federal property”, we can read in the Russian decree.

Ukrainian operator Energoatom, for its part, considered Vladimir Putin’s decree “null and void, irrelevant and inappropriate”.

“The Zaporizhia Power Plant will continue to operate in Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian law, within the Ukrainian energy system, Energotom,” the company added in a telegram.

While the administrative management of the plant was transferred to Moscow on Wednesday, Energotam expressed its anger at the “creation of fake companies in the name of Ukrainian companies”.

This Russian decision shows “the agony of the crazy imaginary world of an aggressive country”, further insulting the Ukrainian operator.

Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of bombing the site for months, with the attacks similar to the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

Last weekend, the plant’s Ukrainian director, Igor Murachov, was briefly detained by the Russians before being released. Energoatom’s boss, Petro Kotein, has since taken over, he announced on Wednesday morning.