As the United States tries to broker a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia this week, an unexpected idea has emerged in the talks: potential U.S. control of a key Ukrainian nuclear power plant on the front line of the war with Russia,
The Washington Post reports.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed “American ownership” of nuclear power plants in Ukraine in a phone call on Wednesday, the White House said. Zelensky offered a somewhat different account Thursday: He said that only one nuclear power plant had been discussed — the sprawling Zaporizhzhia plant, which is occupied by Russian forces — and that U.S. ownership was not on the table.
“President Trump asked me: ‘What do you think about this plant?’ I told him that if it does not remain Ukrainian, it won’t function for anyone,” Zelensky said at a news conference in Oslo.
The idea that the United States might assume control, if not ownership, of nuclear power plants in a country at war might seem far-fetched. But under the Trump administration, the United States has shown a keen interest in Ukraine’s industrial assets. Trump is pushing for a “trillion-dollar deal” for U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals.
Alex Riabchyn, a former deputy minister for energy in Ukraine, said that nuclear power infrastructure was not included in previous talks about a deal for U.S. access to critical minerals, and that the issue had taken many in Kyiv by surprise.
But he emphasized that the future of the Zaporizhzhia plant is a key issue in peace negotiations. “This is super important, not only for Ukraine but for the European Union,” Riabchyn said. “We used to sell a lot of electricity to the European Union, helping them to function and decarbonize.”
