Russia’s plunder of the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe risks undercutting efforts to establish a security zone around the reactors and has narrowed the room for diplomacy with international monitors, according to analysts.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in St. Petersburg to discuss nuclear safety concerns around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, according to the Kremlin.
Russia claimed ownership over the plant — home to six reactors built to supply a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity — last week as part of a wider “annexation” of occupied territory in Ukraine in a move condemned by the United Nations. Moscow also told the plant’s Ukrainian staff to reapply with Russian state-owned atomic energy company Rosatom to keep their jobs.
