A Russian vehicle is parked in front of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on September 1. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
The general manager of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been detained by a Russian patrol, Petro Kotin, chairman of state nuclear company Energoatom, said in a statement on Saturday.
CEO Ihor Murashov was in his vehicle on his way out of the plant when he was “stopped, taken out of the car and blindfolded and driven in an unknown direction. At the moment there is no information about his fate,” said Kotin.
“Murashov is a licensed person and has primary and sole responsibility for the nuclear and radiological safety of the Zaporizhzhya NPP,” Kotin said, adding that his arrest “endangers the operational security of Ukraine and the largest nuclear power plant in Europe”.
Kotin called on the Russians to release Murashov and urged International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi to “set him free.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry “strongly condemns the illegal detention” of Murashov in a statement posted on its website Saturday.
“This crime is another manifestation of state terrorism by Russia and a serious violation of international law. Russia should immediately release the general director of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” he said.
“We call on the international community, in particular the UN, the IAEA and the G7, to also take decisive measures to this end,” the statement added.
Some background: The Zaporizhzhia plant has been a focal point of the war, as both the Russians and Ukrainians have each blamed bombings near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Since early March, when Russia seized the plant, international and local experts have issued dire warnings, not only for the safety of the plant’s workers, but also for fear of a nuclear disaster that could affect thousands of people in the vicinity.