The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company is calling on Russia and Ukraine to adopt a five-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after fighting over the weekend damaged safety equipment at the Russian-occupied site.

Petro Kotin: “The situation is very dangerous. We encountered such a situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, if you remember. But there is a very big difference here: There are six power units. All of them are filled with nuclear materials. Also, there are pools with spent nuclear fuel. All of this requires constant cooling at the expense of working pumps. These pumps run on electricity.”

Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of placing explosive landmines around the power units at Zaporizhzhia in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called “nuclear blackmail.”