Ukraine Nuclear Plant Chief Freed By Russia: UN Watchdog

The detained chief of Ukraine's Russian-held nuclear power plant has been released, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said Monday.

The head of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced Monday that the head of the Russian-controlled Ukrainian nuclear power plant has been released.

“I welcome the release of Ihor Murashov, General Director of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine; I have received assurance that Mr. Murashov has returned to his family safely,” Rafael Grossi,

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Twitter.

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On Saturday, Kyiv called for Murashov's immediate release and denounced his "unlawful detention".

Zaporizhia - the largest nuclear power plant in Europe -

The center of recent tensions was after Moscow and Kiev accused each other of strikes on and near the plant, which raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

On Friday at about 4:00 pm local time (1300 GMT) on his way from the reactor to the city of Energodar, a "Russian patrol" detained Murashov, the head of Ukraine's nuclear energy agency Energoatom.

Petro Cotten said in a statement.

He said Murashov's car was stopped, he was pulled out of the car and "blindfolded, driven in an unknown direction."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it "condemns in the strongest terms the illegal detention".

Kotin said that Murashov "bears the primary and exclusive responsibility for the nuclear and radiological safety" of the Zaporizhzhya plant.

The nuclear plant is located in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, which Russia annexed on Friday along with three other regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson.

The bombing around the plant sparked calls from Kyiv and its Western allies to disarm the areas around Ukraine's nuclear facilities.

A United Nations monitoring team visited Zaporizhia in early September, and the IAEA pushed Kyiv and Moscow to agree to create a security zone around the plant to seek to avoid any nuclear accidents.

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