Ukraine will not “discuss” a transfer to the United States of the property of its nuclear power plants, including that occupied of Zaporijia, hammered President Volodyr Zelensky on Thursday March 20. “We will not discuss it. We have 15 nuclear reactors in service today. All of this belongs to our state,” he continued at a press conference in front of his European allies in Oslo.
The day before, Donald Trump had, during a telephone conversation between the two leaders, suggested that his country could seize the Ukrainian nuclear power plants. “The Americans’ possession of these power stations would be the best protection and the best possible support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” said the White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt after the call. This declaration echoes an argument regularly advanced by the United States: a strong American economic commitment in Ukraine would constitute its best security guarantee, because Russia will not dare to target a country where America has interest.
After rare earths, nuclear power plants
Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has been looking to obtain a rapid end of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while operating a net diplomatic turn by getting closer to Russia and criticizing kyiv hard. While announcing the end of US military support in early March, the White House had already tried to negotiate an agreement that would give the United States access to rare land and Ukrainian minerals. The interest in the United States, according to Donald Trump: helping American taxpayers to “collect their money” for the aid sent to Ukraine throughout the war.
An agreement in exchange for the continuation of American support against Vladimir Putin, of which Donald Trump now seems to be partially having his ear and with whom he led the cease-fire negotiations. The deal had nevertheless not been signed on the scheduled date, after a stormy meeting at the White House on February 28 between Donald Trump, his vice-president JD Vance, and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The prospect of such an agreement continues to weigh in the balance of negotiations with the United States, and therefore with Russia. On March 12, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that a mineral agreement would give the United States a “direct interest” to protect Ukraine … without however constituting “a security guarantee” for Ukraine, whose protection will fall according to the White House to the EU. After rare lands, it is therefore the Ukrainian nuclear power plants that could serve as a carrot for American power to continue to weigh in its favor in the balance of war.
The fate of the Zaporijia central in question?
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, only the fate of the Zaporijia power station, currently located on the territory controlled by Russian troops, was mentioned during the telephone exchange with Trump. If it has been stopped since the start of its occupation by the Russians in early 2022, security remains precarious and concern for kyiv and the West, especially for the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA). The largest power plant in Europe, the energy it provided before the war is, according to the Ukrainian president, essential to the proper functioning of the country and the region. “Do we need it? For people, yes, for Europe, too,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.
“These are state-owned nuclear power plants, these are not private property,” he also recalled about the four operational Ukrainian nuclear power plants, all built in the Soviet era. The Ukrainian president, however, said he listened if the Americans “want to modernize, invest” in the Zaporijia nuclear power plant.
Despite this very sensitive subject, Wednesday’s conversation with the American president was “perhaps one of the most substantial and positive” in recent times, praised Volodymyr Zelensky after the call. While the Ukrainian authorities have been increasing efforts in recent days to repair relations with Donald Trump, the tone also seems to have softened on the side of Washington, who also praised a “fantastic” telephone call between the two leaders.