Russia's Lavrov digs in on control of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Russia hasn't received a U.S. proposal to give up control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine, and a change to the facility's ownership isn't conceivable, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
His comments were consistent with the foreign ministry's declaration in March that Moscow won't cede control of the plant or agree to operate the facility jointly with another state.
It also comes at the outset of what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Sunday "a very critical week" in the U.S. effort to forge peace between Russia and Ukraine.
President Donald Trump said after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Rome that the sides were close to reaching a peace plan but Rubio sounded a more cautious note.
"We're not there yet," Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in, or if it's time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally if not more important in some cases," he added.
The currently defunct Zaporizhzhia atomic plant, Europe's largest, has been occupied by Russia since the first weeks of Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
ZNPP, near the town of Enerhodar, is now controlled by Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, with monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, rotated into the facility.
Lavrov said in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation" - conducted last week and broadcast on Sunday - that safety requirements for the plant "are fully implemented and it is in very good hands."
Zelenskyy said in March that if the U.S. helped to return the power plant to Ukraine and invest in it, Washington and Kyiv could work together. He estimated it will take years of costly repairs to safely return Zaporizhzhia to operation.
The facility has come up as part of a Trump administration effort to boost cooperation with Russia's energy sector as it pushes for a deal to end the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg has reported. One proposal would see the U.S. take over the plant, to be considered Ukrainian territory, with any electricity generated supplied to both Ukraine and Russia.
"We never received such an offer," Lavrov told CBS. "I don't think any change is conceivable."
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