Deputy Prime Minister Marat Jusnulin said that if Kiev does not pay Moscow for the electricity it produces, Russia intends to cut off Ukraine from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe occupied by the Russian army.
The statement is the latest from an official who suggests that Russia is preparing for a permanent occupation or even annexation of parts of southern Ukraine, the Kherson region and significant parts of Zaporizhzhia.
“If Ukraine’s energy system is ready to pay, then (the plant) can work for Ukraine. If not, then it will work for Russia,” Jusnulin said during a visit to the nuclear facility on Wednesday, according to the agencies. news.
Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said on Thursday that the plant continues to supply electricity to the entire country.
“The Russians do not have the technical capacity to supply energy from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Energoatom spokesman Leonid Oliynyk told AFP. “It takes time and money. It’s like building a bridge in Crimea. And in a month or two we will get everything back under Ukrainian control,” he added.
In 2021, before the Russian attack on Ukraine, which began on February 24, the power plant accounted for 20% of Ukraine’s annual electricity production and 47% of that produced by the Ukrainian nuclear park.
In early March, Moscow forces took control of the power plant located in the southern Ukrainian city of Energodar, separated from the Ukrainian-controlled regional capital Zaporizhzhia by the Dnieper River.
source: Noticias
