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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree ordering the government to take over Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which has been under the control of the Russian army since March.
According to the presidential decree, the plant and the adjacent facilities necessary for its operation must be state-owned.
To this end, the government will have to create a company to ensure the security of the facilities, which have been under attack for the past two months, with both sides accusing each other.
Precisely for this reason, the plant’s reactors were shut down on September 11, which again set off the alarms of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Today, Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry has already assured that, following the annexation of the region last Friday, the plant is located on national territory, so state structures of this country must control it.
In addition, Russia’s Rosenergoatom, which this week created a company to manage its operation, announced the appointment of a new director for the plant, Oleg Romanenko, former chief engineer of another Russian plant.
The Ukrainian state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, denounced the arrest and disappearance of the man in charge of the plant, Ihor Murashov, on January 1.
The head of the plant was finally released on Monday and “expelled” to Ukrainian-controlled territory, so he will not resume his duties at the plant.
Putin’s decree was issued shortly before IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s trip to Kyiv and Moscow to continue his consultations to agree on and implement a safety zone around the plant as soon as possible.
