Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready for a trilateral meeting with the Ukrainians and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure the safety of Ukrainian atomic power plants

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is open to a meeting on the safety of Ukrainian nuclear plants, but that it should not be in Chernobyl, the location suggested by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General

In a Sunday phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Putin slammed Ukrainian radicals of causing a “provocation” at the Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant. He added that a “sabotage group,” was also involved in initiating the incident.

The March 4 shootout and fire at Ukraine’s Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest had alarmed the world, fearing that it could have triggered a nuclear radiation disaster.

“Attempts to blame the Russian military for this incident are part of a cynical propaganda campaign,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin statement.

Putin responded to the suggestion by Grossi to hold a trilateral (IAEA, Ukraine and Russia) meeting in the Chernobyl zone. Putin noted that “in principle this idea (0f a trilateral meeting) could be useful”. The IAEA chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi had suggested that the meeting could take place in Chernobyl, the site of a massive nuclear disaster, when Ukraine was part of the former Soviet Union.

But, rejecting Chernobyl as the venue, Putin said that he preferred a meeting “via videoconference or in a third country.”

According to the Elysee, Putin did not object to the IAEA taking immediate steps to ensure the safety of all Ukrainian nuclear plants, following his two-hour conversation with Macron.

The Russian President stressed that Russian troops are maintaining the “physical and nuclear safety” of the Zaporozhskaya nuclear plant, along with Ukrainian security and personnel. He added that the Russians were also controlling the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

“All this is being done in order to exclude the possibility of provocations fraught with catastrophic consequences by Ukrainian neo-Nazis or terrorists,” the Kremlin said.

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