Russia could hand over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant still mined, to blow it up remotely, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Spanish reporters on July 1.
"We know for sure that this was considered by the Russian Federation as one of the plans, so that later, when the station is handed over to us, to detonate it remotely for the release, and this is also very dangerous," Zelensky said.
He said in case Russia decides to hand the nuclear plant to Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should check it thoroughly.
Zelensky said Russia took the children of some of the plant's employees to the Russian territory to force their parents to follow the orders of Russian forces on the ground.
"In other words, they are living hostages today," Zelensky said.
These claims couldn't be immediately verified.
A terrorist attack against a nuclear plant would be considered equivalent to using nuclear weapons against civilians, National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksii Danilov told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on June 30.
The official said that Ukraine would be carefully watching the world's reaction if a terror attack at the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant comes to pass.
Danilov noted that after the Kakhovka dam destruction, which unleashed a humanitarian disaster in Ukraine's south, the world's reaction did not correspond to the scale of the disaster.
He added that some Western partners are appealing to Moscow not to blow up the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant as it will have "catastrophic" consequences for Russia.
Zelensky announced on June 20, citing intelligence reports, that Moscow is considering a terrorist attack at the plant to cause a radiation leak.
Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told New Statesman on June 23 that Russia had completed preparations for the terror attack at the nuclear plant.
Alexander Khrebet
(Updated: )
