London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Oct 04, 2025

G7 calls for return of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to Ukraine control

G7 calls for return of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to Ukraine control

Group of Seven condemns Russia’s kidnapping of staff at nuclear facility.
The Group of Seven of the world’s advanced economies condemned Russia’s kidnapping of the leadership of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and called for the immediate return of full control of the facility to Kyiv.

“We condemn Russia’s repeated kidnapping of Ukrainian” Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “leadership and staff and denounce the application of other forms of pressure on remaining Ukrainian personnel,” the Nonproliferation Directors General of the G7 countries wrote in a statement Saturday evening. The group includes the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K.

They urged Russia “to immediately return full control” of the plant “to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine, to remove all Russian personnel from the facility, and to stop any attempts to recklessly and dangerously place” it under Russian administration “which could further jeopardize its safe and secure operations.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin this month ordered his government to take control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility.

The alarm over the nuclear plant comes as Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Saturday that Russia launched a “massive missile attack” pounding energy facilities and other infrastructure in central and western parts of Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Parts of Kyiv suffered power cuts into the evening.

“The geography of this latest mass strike is very wide,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. And on Sunday, according to the Agence France-Presse, Kyiv’s energy operator said that scheduled “stabilization” power cuts have been introduced in the Ukrainian capital after the repeated Russian strikes.

Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy agency, on Tuesday accused Russia of detaining two senior employees at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, according to media reports.

In a statement on social media, Energoatom said Russian forces on Monday “kidnapped” the head of information technology Oleg Kostyukov and the plant’s assistant general director Oleg Osheka and “took them to an unknown destination.”

In a separate development of the war, that has now reached its eight month, Ukraine’s air force reported on Sunday that 14 Iranian-made “Shahed-136” kamikaze drones were shot down overnight in Mykolaiv Oblast, in southern Ukraine.

The EU this week sanctioned three top Iranian generals and the Iranian drone maker Shahed Aviation Industries, and also proposed to further sanction two individuals and two entities already hit by restrictive measures, “in view of their role in the development and delivery” of the drones to Russia.

Tehran denies supplying drones to Moscow in the Ukraine war and on Saturday reportedly strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and the U.K. for the United Nations to investigate the accusations that Russia has used Iranian-made drones.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×