President of the nuclear company Energoatom Petr Kotin cast doubt on the calls of the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Ukrainian and Russian authorities to establish a security perimeter around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. He said this in an interview on Tuesday evening, reports Bloomberg..

" “It’s already a new year, and there is no creation of this zone”.

Instead, Kotin says a more likely scenario is the return of the ZNPP to Ukrainian military control..

“We rely most on the Ukrainian armed forces,” Kotin, who oversees Ukraine’s 15 state-owned reactors, said via video link.. If the Armed Forces manage to break through Russian positions and capture the southern city of Melitopol, located more than 100 kilometers south of the facility, “the only option for the occupiers is to leave the plant,” he said..

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Kotin added that sanctions against Rosatom should be until this war is over.

“Their international activities should be suspended? until they stop the illegal seizure of civilian objects.”.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed optimism last month that an agreement to create a safe zone is approaching.

Read more about why Ukraine is losing the sanctions battle for the ZNPP - read the article by Mykola Tesli on the ZN website. U.A..