The Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations condemned Russia’s kidnapping of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant leadership and called for the immediate return of full control of the plant to Ukraine.
“We condemn Russia’s repeated kidnapping of Ukrainian ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant) leadership and staff,” G7 Nonproliferation Directors General said in a statement dated Saturday.
“We urge Russia to immediately return full control of the ZNPP to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine,” it said.
Russian forces have been in control of the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, since the early days of their invasion of Ukraine, which began in February.
Meanwhile, Russian missiles pounded Ukrainian energy and other facilities on Saturday, causing blackouts in various regions, Kyiv said, while Russian occupation authorities in the southern city of Kherson urged civilians to evacuate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attacks had struck on a “very wide” scale.
He pledged his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners.
Russia intends to take three more Ukrainian regions:
With the war about to start its ninth month and winter approaching, the potential for freezing misery loomed as Russia continued to attack Ukraine’s power grid.
In Kherson, a target for Ukraine’s aggressive counterattack to the invasion Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24, the occupation authorities instructed civilians to get out.
“Due to the tense situation at the front, the increased danger of massive shelling of the city, and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the (east) bank of the Dnipro!” occupation authorities posted on Telegram.
