Russia said on Sunday that NATO leaders should discuss conditions at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant at their summit this week, as an accident at the facility could affect the territories of alliance members.
Ukraine warned last week that Moscow could be preparing to blow up the nuclear power station, which could lead to a radioactive disaster, after Russian workers were told to leave the facility.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday accused Kyiv of “systematic infliction of damage” to the Zaporizhzhia plant and warned of the possible fallout from a catastrophe there.
“Key attention should be devoted” to the Zaporizhzhia facility at the NATO meeting starting Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Telegram post. “After all, the vast majority of the alliance members will be in the direct impact zone” of any potential accident, she said.
Leaders of the NATO alliance will meet on July 11-12 in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, about 1,200 kilometers away from the Zaporizhzhia plant. The summit will discuss crucial issues including the supply of weapons to Kyiv and the accession of Sweden and Ukraine.
According to International Atomic Energy Agency experts, there are not “any visible indications of mines or explosives” at the Zakharova plant, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on July 7.