IAEA chief Grossi meets with Russian President Putin
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to get a deal on creating a safety protection zone around the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
"Now more than ever ... a protection zone must be established," Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said in a statement. "We can’t afford to lose any more time. The stakes are high. We must do everything in our power to help ensure that a nuclear accident does not happen during this tragic conflict, as it could cause even more hardship and suffering in Ukraine and beyond."
Putin told Grossi that Moscow is "happy to discuss all the issues that are of mutual interest to us," adding that the situation around the plant was a "concern" for the Kremlin.
The meeting comes after Putin last week ordered that the daily operation of the nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe — be transferred to a subsidiary of the Russian nuclear company Rosatom following Russia's bogus annexation of the broader Zaporizhzhia region. The facility has been occupied by Russian soldiers since March but it continues to be run by Ukrainian staff.
The Ukrainian government rejects the validity of Putin's decree and named Petro Kotin, the head of the country's nuclear operator Energoatom, as the interim director of the Zaporizhzhia plant.
