Zaporozhye Region's Authorities Slam Guterres' Position on NPP as Irresponsible

SIMFEROPOL, Russia (Sputnik) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is acting irresponsibly by proposing to establish a security perimeter around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP), Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the regional administration, said on Friday.

"He is acting like a completely irresponsible person, as if he were not the UN secretary general but the devil's advocate. He is trying to accomplish the tasks set by our enemy — literally nuclear terrorists. We are not talking about [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy's regime but about his overseers and supervisors," Rogov said in a televised appearance on the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

Guterres understands that the ZNPP will be defenseless in the event of Russian troops' withdrawal from the plant, the official said, adding that the pant "will be damaged immediately."

"Terrible things will happen there. Without Russian missile defense systems, without those guys protecting the safety of the nuclear power plant today, something simply irreparable will happen there," Rogov said.

Guterres on Thursday called for an agreement on a safe perimeter of demilitarization to ensure the safety of the plant, which gets regularly targeted by Ukrainian troops since going under Russian control. The proposal stipulates the withdrawal of military personnel and equipment from the plant and a ban on their further deployment.

Over the weekend, both Moscow and Kiev blamed each other for shelling the site of the ZNPP. A Russian defense official said that a possible accident at the ZNPP would surpass the scale of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. The official warned that in the event of such a disaster at the ZNPP, the entire territory of Ukraine, the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, as well as Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Romania would be affected by nuclear contamination.

The ZNPP, located on the left bank of the Dnieper River, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of units and output. Since March, the plant has been under the control of the Russian military. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ZNPP is currently being managed by a Ukrainian operator.