Ukraine will not discuss the ownership of its nuclear power plants. All Ukrainian nuclear power plants belong to the state of Ukraine, including the temporarily seized Zaporizhzhya NPP. This is recognised by everyone, including the IAEA.
The plant's staff has always received salaries from the state of Ukraine, and these people are Ukrainian citizens. And although the Russians illegally changed the management of the plant, all the specialists there, including nuclear experts, are Ukrainians who are being held there by force, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Oslo.
‘You know how they keep them there. They took children from many of them, put them on a bus and took them to the territory of Russia. And what would you do? You would do anything for a child,’ he said.
This is why the issue of ZNPP is dangerous because it is not properly maintained, despite the IAEA's supervision and commissions. For normal operation, it needs a supply of water, which is not available after the Russians blew up the dam.
‘The question that the Americans are asking us - I don't know if they have discussed it with the Russians or not - President Trump asked me: what do you think about this plant? I told him that if it is not Ukrainian, it will not work for anyone. This is illegal. And we can't just dispose of this station because it's a state-owned station. The question is that if the Americans are thinking about how to find a way out of this situation, if they want to take it away from the Russians and want to invest and modernise it, that is another question. This is an open question, but we have not discussed the ownership issue with President Trump,’ he said.
All 15 units currently in operation are owned by the state, and this is a serious guarantee of energy security, he stressed.
- ZNPP and its satellite city of Enerhodar have been under Russian occupation since spring 2022. During the talks between Ukraine and the United States in Jeddah, the issue of ZNPP was discussed, but no details were known.
- President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that he had discussed the issue of Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhya NPP with Donald Trump. Trump asked about the possibility of restoring ZNPP by US forces. ‘I said that we are ready to talk about this with you, but we are talking only about one station that is under temporary occupation,’ the head of state assured.