US closely monitoring situation at Zaporizhzhia NPP - White House

The United States government has said it is closely monitoring the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the city of Enerhodar, which was seized by the Russian military, the White House press service said.

"We continue to closely monitor the condition of the power plant. This has been our priority for a long time. We have noted before that Russia's permanent military occupation of the nuclear power plant is dangerous. The nuclear power plant should not be a target of hostilities," said White House spokesperson Karin Jean-Pierre during a briefing in Washington.

She also noted that there is "no new or concrete information on the latest reports." The spokeswoman added that U.S. President Joe Biden has not recently discussed the situation at the ZNPP with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As a reminder, Russian troops occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP in March 2022 during the aggression against Ukraine. This posed a serious threat to the security of the energy facility and the entire region.

The international community expressed serious outrage and condemned these actions by Russia. Many governments have called for an end to the occupation and the return of control over the energy facility to Ukraine.