Kyiv (Reuters) – Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatum said on Tuesday that Russian forces had kidnapped a deputy head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine and were holding him at an unknown location.

In a post on messaging app Telegram, Energoatom said the official, Valeriy Martynyuk, had been taken into custody on Monday. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Energoatom called on the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, to take “every possible measure” to help free Martiniuk. The International Atomic Energy Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the Kremlin, Grossi was scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

The incident comes after the arrest of the then head of the station, Ihor Murashov, on October 1. Grossi announced his release on October 3, after which the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Murashov would not return to his duties as station chief.

Russia seized the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, in the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, but Ukrainian employees still run it.

Russia announced plans last week for its people to take control of the plant, in a move rejected by Energoatom head Petro Kotin. Kotin appointed himself director of the station, and said that decisions regarding its operation would be taken in Kyiv.

(Reporting by Max Hunder and Francois Murphy); Editing by Mathias Williams

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