Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron expressed their willingness on Sunday for an “unpoliticized interaction” with the UN nuclear society IAEA should the security situation around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant call for it, the Kremlin reports. The two presidents spoke on the phone.
In the conversation, Putin pointed out to his French counterpart the potentially “catastrophic consequences” of what he believes were Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, a Russian-controlled area in southeastern Ukraine. Putin said Ukrainians carry out “regular” attacks on nuclear facilities in Zaporizhzhya, including a radioactive waste storage facility, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin also told Macron that the European Union should not thwart the supply of Russian food and fertilizers to Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, Russia’s state news agency Ria Novosti reported.