Baerbock calls on Moscow to hand back control over ZNPP to Ukraine

German Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock has called on the Russian side to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to stay at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) for a long time and hand back control over the plant to Ukraine as its sole legal owner.

The relevant statement was made by German Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Baerbock, Russian weapons are kept at Zaporizhzhia NPP, posing a huge nuclear threat.

“Hence, we are calling on Moscow to allow the IAEA mission to stay at the plant for a long time and remove weapons completely. Russia should remove them from the territory of Zaporizhzhia NPP and hand back control over the nuclear plant to its sole legal owner, Ukraine. These are the demands we must make now,” Baerbock said.

In her words, the situation at Zaporizhzhia NPP is the fault and nonsense of the Russian war, and Europe should not make any concessions.

A reminder that Russian troops seized Zaporizhzhia NPP on March 4, 2022. Since then, they had been deploying military equipment and ammunition within the area of the plant, and shelling the adjacent territory.

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