KYIV (Reuters) – There are signs that Russian forces may be preparing to leave the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which they seized in March, the chairman of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company said on Sunday.
Such a withdrawal would constitute a major change in the partially occupied region of Zaporizhia, in the south-east of the country, where the front line has hardly moved for months.
Repeated bombardments around the plant have raised fears of a nuclear disaster.
“In recent weeks, we are indeed receiving reports of signs that they may be preparing to leave the (power plant),” Petro Kotin, chairman of Energoatom, told state television.
“First of all, there is a huge amount of information in the Russian media that it would be worth leaving the (power plant) and perhaps handing over control of it to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” he added, referring to the UN nuclear watchdog.
“It looks like they’re packing up and stealing everything they can.”
For months, Russia and Ukraine, which was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986, have accused each other of bombing the Zaporizhia power plant, which no longer produces energy.
Petro Kotin clarified that it was too early to talk about leaving: “We don’t see it now, but they are preparing (to leave)”.
“All (Ukrainian) personnel are prohibited from passing through checkpoints and entering (controlled) Ukrainian territory.”
The head of the IAEA met a Russian delegation in Istanbul on November 23 to discuss the establishment of a protection zone around the plant, the largest in Europe, in order to avoid a nuclear disaster.
Zaporizhia supplied about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity.
(Reporting Felix Hoske and Pavel Polityuk; writing by Tom Balmforth; French version Kate Entringer)