Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian control over the Zaporizhia NPP threatens a radiation catastrophe. His statement came on the 38th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, AFP reported.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine in the early days of their 2022 invasion.
Moscow and Kiev regularly accuse each other of threatening the safety of the site, which is Europe's largest nuclear facility.
"For 785 days now, Russian terrorists have held the Zaporozhye NPP hostage," Zelensky said on social networks.
"It is the responsibility of the entire world to put pressure on Russia to ensure that the plant is released and returned to full Ukrainian control, and that all Ukrainian nuclear facilities are protected from Russian strikes. This is the only way to prevent new radiation catastrophes, which the presence of the Russian occupiers in the NPT constantly threatens," he added.
The call was made 38 years after the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
The incident, considered the world's worst nuclear disaster, contaminated large areas in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Extensive areas of Western Europe were also exposed to radiation.
"The Chernobyl disaster showed how quickly deadly threats can appear," Zelensky said.
Russian forces seized the decommissioned Chernobyl facility on February 24, 2022 - the first day of their invasion, when they sent troops into Ukraine from Belarus - but abandoned it weeks later./BGNES
