Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday expressed concern regarding the troops stationed near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, AFP reported.
“We are worried,” Erdogan said. “We don’t want to experience another Chernobyl.”
Erdogan made the remarks after he, along with Guetterres, met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine’s Lviv city.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is Europe’s largest atomic power plant. It was captured by Russia in March, just weeks after President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine on February 24.
Fears regarding the safety of the nuclear plant have grown in recent weeks after both, Ukraine and Russia, accused each other of shelling it.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russia of storing heavy weaponry inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant complex and using it as a cover to launch attacks, knowing that Ukraine would not risk returning fire at the complex, according to CNN.
A video shared online also showed Russian military vehicles inside a turbine hall connected to a nuclear reactor. However, it remains unclear when the video was shot.
On Thursday, Guterres said that he was gravely concerned about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant and said that any potential damage to the nuclear facility is suicide.
“Common sense must prevail to avoid any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant,” the United Nations chief said. “Further deployment of forces or equipment to the site must be avoided. The area needs to be demilitarized.”
However, Guterres’ proposal to demilitarise the nuclear plant was rejected by Russia, which said that leaving the facility would make it “more vulnerable”.
Ivan Nechayev, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry, said a visit to the plant by the International Atomic Energy Agency could be arranged in the future, Reuters reported.
“Experts then could determine for themselves who had been shelling it,” Nechayev said.
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