Russia must hand over ZNPP to full control of Ukraine, IAEA - Zelensky at G7 summit

The president said this in an address to the people of Japan in Hiroshima within the framework of the 48th Summit of the Group of Seven, which was broadcast on the official Facebook page of the head of state, reports Ukrinform.

"I am here in Hiroshima so that the world can hear the Ukrainian call for unification from here. Russia trampled everything that is civilized. It has been occupying our largest nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, for more than a year. Russia is the only such terrorist state in the world whose tanks opened fire at the building of a nuclear power plant. No one else made the nuclear plant a test site for storing nuclear weapons and projectiles," Zelensky said.

He added that Russia was hiding behind a nuclear power plant in order to fire rocket artillery at Ukrainian cities.

"If anyone in the world is still able to ignore Russia's other war crimes, such a crime against humanity by Russia must certainly motivate everyone to act. This is what Ukraine is saying, the country which once survived the Chornobyl radiation disaster of 1986," said president.

He recalled that part of the Ukrainian land remains a closed exclusion zone.

"Imagine, it was through this zone that the Russian troops launched an offensive. They dug trenches precisely in those forests where radiation-contaminated materials were buried even in Soviet times. If the level of evil and stupidity in Russia's actions sees no repercussions, the world will inevitably become a ruin. It is only a matter of time before other criminals in public office seek to launch similar wars. If you allow Russia to keep at least a piece of the territory it now occupies, international law will never apply again," Zelensky emphasized.

He recalled that Ukraine had proposed a peace formula. "Its first point is radiation and nuclear safety. Russia must give up radiation and nuclear blackmail of the world, hand over the nuclear plant it is currently occupying under the full control of Ukraine and the IAEA," the Ukrainian head of state emphasized.

The president noted that Ukraine’s peace formula consists of 10 points in total.

"There is everything that is needed to end Russia's war against our country. But the strength of the Ukrainian peace formula is that, by stopping Russian aggressive ambitions and restoring the security violated by Russia, we will give the world an additional result. We will paralyze other potential aggressors. When everyone who wants war will see how united and determined the world is when they want peace, there will be no point to even unleash a war," President Zelensky believes.

As reported earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky is currently in Japan, where the 48th Summit of the Group of Seven nations is underway. Its participants are looking into ways to ensure the stability of the global economy, including the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and Russian aggression against Ukraine.