Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday that the leaders of the transatlantic NATO defense alliance, which is run by the United States, should talk about Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant at their summit this week.
On July 11 and 12, NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius to talk about a wide range of issues, including disagreements over Ukraine’s membership application and Sweden’s entry, increasing ammo stocks, and reviewing the first defense plans in decades.
Zakharova said that the NATO meeting should pay the most attention to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant because Ukraine is “systematically causing damage” to it.
Zakharova said on the Telegram message app, “After all, the vast majority of alliance members will be in the direct impact zone” if something bad happened at the plant.
The largest nuclear plant in Europe is about 1,000 km (620 miles) from Vilnius.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused the other of planning to attack the plant, which is on land held by Russia in the Zaporizhzhia area of Ukraine. This is close to the front line of Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been warning for days about the serious danger at the facility. Most recently, he said that Russian troops had mined the roofs of several reactors.
The experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency who work at the plant said that they had not seen any signs of mines or explosives there yet, but they also said that they needed more access to be sure.
