Russia's defense minister and the United Nations chief on Monday discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, which is currently under Moscow’s control and has been the target of fighting, Moscow said Monday.
Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the world will lose to terrorism and give in to nuclear blackmail if it takes no action to prevent an accident at Zaporizhzhia.
"Sergei Shoigu conducted telephone negotiations with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regarding the conditions for safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear facility, was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of March, not long after Moscow launched its military offensive in Ukraine.
Since the end of July, Zaporizhzhia has been the target of a number of military strikes, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of being behind the shelling.
The fighting at the plant has triggered fears of a possible nuclear catastrophe and was the subject of an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council last Thursday.
"If now the world does not show strength and decisiveness to defend one nuclear power station, it will mean that the world has lost," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message on Monday. "It will lose to terrorism. And give in to nuclear blackmail."
Ukraine has accused Russia of using the plant as a base for possible attacks and for storing weapons.
Kyiv, backed by its Western allies, has called for the area to be demilitarized and for Moscow to withdraw its troops there.
IAEA visit
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Monday said the U.N. has the logistics and security capabilities to support a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to Zaporizhzhia if both Russia and Ukraine agree.
"The U.N. Secretariat has no authority to block or cancel any IAEA activities," Dujarric added.
Dujarric was responding to an accusation by Russia that U.N. security had blocked a visit by IAEA inspectors to the plant.
He said that "in close contact with the IAEA, the U.N. Secretariat has assessed that it has in Ukraine the logistics and security capacity to be able to support any IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from Kyiv."
But he said both Russia and Ukraine have to agree. Both countries have said they want IAEA inspectors to visit.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he was ready to lead a mission and called on Russia and Ukraine to cooperate.
Guterres on Thursday called for an end to military activity around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Shoigu and Guterres also discussed the strikes on the Kremlin-controlled Olenivka prison in eastern Ukraine at the end of July, which left dozens of Ukrainian prisoners dead.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of the mass killings, but Moscow denies the charges and says Kyiv was behind the strikes.