There are fears the boss of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine may have been kidnapped as he has not been seen since he was blindfolded and arrested by Russian troops.
Ihor Murashov, the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility in Enerhodar, was blindfolded and driven to an unknown location on Friday for questioning, according to eyewitness reports.
The arrest has raised fears over the security of the nuclear power plant in the occupied south-east of the country.
Murashov was said to be on his way from the facility to the town of Enerhodar in the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast region when he was detained at around 4pm on Friday.
Al Jazeera reported Petro Kotin, head of state-owned firm Energoatom, as accusing Russia of jeopardising the nuclear power plant's safety.
“He was taken out of the car and with his eyes blindfolded he was driven in an unknown direction,” Kotin said in a statement.
“His detention by [Russia] jeopardises the safety of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.”
Russia did not comment on the arrest and there has been no indication of Murashov's fate.
Kotin appealed to the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, to take “all possible immediate actions to urgently free” Murashov.
The IAEA said Musharov had been “temporarily detained to answer questions”, according to Russian authorities.
The UN said that it was “seeking clarifications” to resolve the matter “in line with its nuclear safety mandate”.
The Zaporizhzhia plant was shelled earlier in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with both sides accusing each other of risking nuclear disaster.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the surrounding area to be demilitarised, with the site still staffed by Ukrainians despite the region being under Russian control.
Murashov has opposed allowing Rosatom – Russia's state-run nuclear energy company – to take over the Zaporizhzhia plant.
As director general, Murashov reportedly had access to security codes and oversaw day-to-day protocols.
