Russia’s war against Ukraine – all developments

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called on Russia to withdraw from the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine and to stop shelling. “This madness has to end,” said the Green politician on Tuesday after a meeting with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, in Berlin. She expressly supported his concept of building a protection zone around the nuclear reactor.

“It is intolerable to find ourselves repeatedly and practically without warning in situations in which we are only a hair’s breadth away from a nuclear accident, for example due to the destruction of power lines,” said the Foreign Minister. The Russian attack on Ukraine was also “an unprecedented attack on nuclear safety and security”. Never before have active nuclear power plants been the target of acts of war. “Never could we have imagined that a country could be irresponsible enough to make a nuclear power plant a bargaining chip in a war.”

Grossi renewed his push for a protection zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. This is not easy because the system is right at the front. But it’s not impossible either. “A nuclear power plant can never be a legitimate military target,” emphasized Grossi, who thanked Germany for supporting the IAEA.


source site-12