(23.06.2023)

Q Okay. And one more question on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. There’s a little bit of confusion. I think President Zelenskyy is saying — or was — said yesterday that Russia is plotting a terror attack on the nuclear power plant. President Putin today is urging the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that Ukraine does not attack the power plant. What is the administration’s understanding on this? What’s your assessment? And are there anything that you’re doing in particular to that issue?

MR. KIRBY: We’re continuing to monitor it closely. We are able to monitor some radiation sensors that are around the plant. And thus far, we’ve detected no elevated levels of radioactivity.

Q Do you have any sense of who’s going to attack, if anyone is?

MR. KIRBY: Look, I’ve seen those reports. I’ve seen those comments. I just don’t have anything to confirm them or speak to the validity of them.

The only other thing I’d say, and we’ve said this before too, is that I think we should all be able to agree that a nuclear power plant is not a great site for military operations, one way or the other.

When asked to comment on Zelensky’s latest remarks during a press briefing in the White House on Friday, Kirby said at first that the US continued to “monitor some radiation sensors that are around the plant.” The official added that “thus far, we’ve detected no elevated levels of radioactivity.”

When pressed further by a reporter, the NSC spokesman clarified that while he had “seen those comments,” he did not “have anything to confirm them or speak to the validity of them.”

Commenting on Zelensky’s claim on Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described it as “yet another lie.”