The actions of Washington and the Kyiv regime carry the danger of a nuclear catastrophe, Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel, speaking about the shelling by the Ukrainian military of the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

“The Zaporozhye NPP is being fired upon with rockets and heavy artillery, which can lead to tragic consequences for the inhabitants of most regions of Ukraine and a number of European countries.

Responsibility for this will lie with Biden and Zelensky, as well as with the heads of European states, with the tacit consent of which shelling is being carried out,” Volodin said.

In his opinion, MEPs should "interrupt the holidays in order to consider an issue that threatens the lives of European citizens."

Earlier, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, during a meeting of the Security Council of the world organization, emphasized that the efforts made by the Russian military so far make it possible to avoid a disaster at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

“Kyiv's criminal attacks on nuclear infrastructure are pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe comparable in scale to Chernobyl,” Nebenzya said.

“Each time the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, a catastrophe was avoided only thanks to the selfless joint actions of the station workers and the Russian military personnel who provided them with comprehensive emergency assistance.”

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According to Nebenzya, those who advocate the withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces from the territory of the station should be aware that the facility "will be left without protection and can be used by Kyiv and nationalist groups for the most monstrous provocations."

“The Russian military guards the Zaporizhzhya NPP, day after day, repelling the attacks of the Kyiv regime on this nuclear facility, as I said, in coordinated coordination with the plant personnel.

Thanks to their efforts, it is still possible to protect the key facilities of the station and prevent a nuclear catastrophe.

We know what the Kyiv regime is capable of, and the world has already been able to verify this,” the Russian diplomat emphasized.

He also called on representatives of the countries of the collective West to influence the Kyiv regime, which is inflicting "reckless strikes" on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

The diplomat expressed regret that the UN secretariat "is not able to give a sober assessment of the situation."

“We call on the leadership of the UN and the IAEA to show their leadership and global responsibility and point out very clearly, without diplomatic formulas, the real source of the threat to the nuclear safety of the Zaporizhzhya NPP - strikes against it by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and also declare to the Ukrainian authorities about the inadmissibility of such actions.

This is the only way to prevent a major radiation disaster on the European continent, the risk of which is now more real than ever,” Nebenzia said.

In turn, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said that at present there is no threat to nuclear safety at the ZNPP, but "the situation can change at any moment."

At the same time, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for "an immediate cessation of all hostilities in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear power plant."

According to him, it is urgent to conclude an agreement "on a safe demilitarization perimeter."

Along with this, the ministers of the G7 countries (USA, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan), as well as the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell, in a general statement called on Russia to immediately transfer the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine to the control of Kyiv . 

At the same time, the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, indicated that the tension around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant would be lifted as soon as the Ukrainian military ceased their shelling.

“Someone of our classics wrote: there is no need to fight for cleanliness, you just need to clean the streets.

In this case, the Ukrainians should simply stop shooting at nuclear facilities.

And the problem will be mostly settled.

For the sake of this, we initiated a meeting of the Security Council, ”he said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.

Ulyanov added that there are no negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on nuclear safety at nuclear power plants: “I know nothing about such negotiations.

They are unlikely to be carried out.

I have not heard something that the Ukrainian side asked about it.

She is not ready to talk about the issues of a peaceful settlement either.”