President Joe Biden spoke to the leaders of close allies about the tense situation surrounding the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine, according to the White House.
With international concerns about the nuclear power plant being the epicenter of a major disaster escalating in recent weeks as both Russian and Ukrainian forces accuse each other of shelling the plant, Biden spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, affirming “their continued support for Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression,” said a readout from the White House press office on Sunday.
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“They also discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, including the need to avoid military operations near the plant and the importance of an IAEA visit as soon as feasible to ascertain the state of safety systems,” the readout added. Iran’s nuclear program and stability in the Middle East were also discussed, per the readout.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned earlier this month that shelling the plant is “suicidal” and expressed hope that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will be able to access the plant.
State Department spokesman Ned Price echoed that call, saying the IAEA must be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “as soon as possible and in a manner that respects Ukraine’s full sovereignty, to help ensure the safety and security of the plant and monitoring of its nuclear material” while warning of the prospect of a Russian “false flag” attack, the Washington Examiner’s Jamie McIntyre reported last week.
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Russia accuses Ukraine of shelling the plant and attacking it with drones and has rejected the call to establish a demilitarized zone around the plant. “Any proposals to create a demilitarized zone around the plant are unacceptable,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivan Nechayev at a briefing in Moscow. “That would only make the nuclear power plant more vulnerable.” In addition, Nechayev accused the United Nations of “sabotaging” a planned visit by IAEA inspectors in June but said the international experts would be visiting the plant “very soon.”
The power plant, which is located near the town of Enerhodar, is the largest of its kind in Europe and one of the largest in the world. A week into the Russian invasion that began in February, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were attacking from “all sides” of the nuclear facility, after which it was occupied. During those early days of the conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on world leaders to stop Russia “before this becomes a nuclear disaster” and referred to the 1986 Chernobyl accident, in which a Soviet nuclear plant located north of Kyiv exploded, bringing about the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
