Moscow 'open' for talks on nuke plant

Putin tells IAEA chief 'all issues' can be covered, as G7 discusses Ukraine

MOSCOW/KYIV/WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi he was "open for dialogue" on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as the G7 nations convened on Tuesday and pledged continued support for Ukraine.

Putin said during the meeting with Grossi that he will gladly discuss all issues, including the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, TASS reported.

"We … will gladly discuss all issues that mutually interest us. …For example, everything involving the situation" around the Zaporizhzhia plant, Putin said. "In any case, we are open for this dialogue."

A statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, released after the meeting said that Grossi was due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv "later this week" for further talks regarding Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.

Grossi met Zelensky last week for discussions on setting up a nuclear safety and protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia plant.

In recent weeks, Grossi had been "engaging in intense consultations with both Ukraine and the Russian Federation to agree and implement "such a zone "as soon as possible", the IAEA statement said.

It came as the Group of Seven nations convened a meeting on Tuesday and discussed the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Zelensky continued his appeals to the G7 leaders for more air defense capabilities as the G7 vowed to support Kyiv for "as long as it takes".

The G7 — which groups the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada — pledged continued "financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support … for as long as it takes" to Ukraine, it said in a statement.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped the G7 would hold "the Kyiv regime" accountable for the crimes it has committed.

In an interview on state television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow was open to talks with the West. Russia was willing to engage with the US or with Turkiye on ways to end the conflict, Lavrov said.

Ukraine on Tuesday received the first of four IRIS-T air defense systems that Germany promised to supply, Reuters quoted a German defense ministry source as saying.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday called on US allies to accelerate financial disbursements to Ukraine.

"We are calling on our partners and allies to join us by swiftly disbursing their existing commitments to Ukraine and by stepping up in doing more," Yellen said as she received her Ukrainian counterpart Sergii Marchenko.

Yellen stressed that the US will begin "to provide the Ukrainian government in the coming weeks with the $4.5 billion in budget assistance passed by Congress on Sept 30".

The funds are part of a $12.3 billion aid package to Ukraine, contained in a stopgap spending bill to avert a shutdown of federal services.

On Wednesday, Russia's Federal Security Service, known by the Russian acronym FSB, said that it had detained five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia over the explosion that damaged the bridge in Crimea on Saturday.

The FSB said the explosion was organized by Ukrainian military intelligence and its director Kyrylo Budanov. The explosive device was moved from Ukraine to Russia via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, the security agency said.

The FSB also said that it had prevented Ukrainian attacks in both Moscow and the western Russian city of Bryansk.

Ukraine has not confirmed its involvement in the bridge blast, but some Ukrainian officials have celebrated the damage.

"The explosives were hidden in 22 plastic film rolls weighing 22,770 kilograms," the FSB said.

The rolls left on a boat in August from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to Bulgaria. They then transited through the port of Poti in Georgia, before going being sent overland to Armenia and on to Russia by road, according to the FSB.

The explosives entered Russia on Oct 4 in a truck with Georgian license plates and reached the region of Krasnodar on Oct 6, two days before the blasts, the FSB said.

Agencies via Xinhua