UN or NATO peacekeepers should ensure safety of Zaporizhzhia NPP – MEP

Andrius Kubilius, a member of the European Parliament and former Prime Minister of Lithuania, said this to LIGA.net.

“There is only one way to ensure security at the power plant. If the ZNPP is protected by international troops. It doesn't matter whether it is a UN peacekeeping mission or NATO. But only then can security be realistically ensured,” he said.

The MEP emphasized that this is only his own idea, but in any case, it is necessary to talk about threats to the ZNPP and ways to counteract them at all possible platforms.

“We can make strong statements against Putin's policy, against possible provocations, and so on. But none of this will change the situation. Yes, the idea of an international contingent is theoretical, but this is something we need to speak up about. And now I am taking this opportunity to raise this very topic,” Kubilius summarized.

Situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

Russian troops occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP in late February 2022. Since then, personnel and military equipment have been permanently stationed there, which the invading forces store in the machine rooms and from time to time bring to positions to shell the territories of the Nikopol district, Dnipropetrovsk region, located on the other side of the Kakhovka reservoir.

An IAEA monitoring mission is working there to ensure that the plant is not used as a military base, that the plant is not attacked or fired upon, and that external power supplies are not interrupted. However, blackouts at the NPP occur constantly. Since last year, Russian troops have started bringing explosives to ZNPP.

In May 2023, Russian forces had placed explosives in the turbine room of the fourth power unit of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP. They also almost completely destroyed the emergency preparedness and response system at the nuclear power plant.

On June 22, IAEA Director Rafael General Grossi said after visiting ZNPP that the situation there was extremely unstable.

On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that intelligence had received information that Russia was considering a scenario of a terrorist attack on the temporarily occupied ZNPP that would cause a radiation release. He also emphasized that the world has enough power to prevent any radiation incidents - it needs to put pressure and act.

The head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Russia has completed preparations for a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

Energoatom reported that as of June 27, the situation at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is under control, and the water level in the cooling pond is stable.

Askad Ashurbekov, a deputy of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council, also told Espreso that the regional authorities are taking coordination measures and developing models for the potential evacuation of people due to the threat of a Russian terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

On June 29, large-scale exercises were held in four regions of Ukraine to prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the ZNPP.