U.S. on Russia's takeover of ZNPP: Piece of paper issued by Putin does not change anything

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said this at a briefing in Washington on Thursday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Zaporizhia belongs to Ukraine, and the [Zaporizhzhia] power plant belongs to Ukraine. And the electricity and the energy that it produces rightly belongs to Ukraine," he said, when asked to comment on Putin's decree on the transfer of the occupied power plant to Russia's federal ownership.

Patel said that Putin "has absolutely no authority to take over a power plant in another country." Therefore, he continued, "a piece of paper issued by him [Putin] or his government certainly doesn't change that fact either."

Russian troops seized the nuclear power plant in March. On October 5, the Kremlin officially announced that the power plant now allegedly belongs to Russia.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said during his visit to Kyiv on Thursday that the temporarily occupied nuclear power plant in Enerhodar remains a Ukrainian facility.