Ukraine's state nuclear agency, Energoatom, claims that Russia is openly "blackmailing the whole world" by threatening to blow up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Ukrainian authorities say that Russian troops have planted explosives in the power units at this nuclear power plant, Telegraph reports.

This agency quoted General Valery Vasilev, the head of Russia's nuclear, chemical and biological defense forces, as saying that there "will either be Russian land or it will all burn and turn into a desert."

"As you know, we have mined all the important facilities of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

We have not hidden this from the enemy for a single moment, we have warned them.

The enemy knows that the power plant will belong to the Russians or to no one else.

We are ready for all the consequences due to this action.

You too, warriors – you must understand that there is no other way.

If the order comes, we must carry it out with honor", Vasilev added.

As Sky News reports, Russian forces have taken control of the nuclear power plant in the southeast of Ukraine, since the beginning of the Russian occupation in this country, but Ukrainian technicians are still operating with it.

Today the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has called on international inspectors to be allowed access to this plant in Zaporizhzhia.

"Any attack on the nuclear plant is suicide," Guterres said during a press conference in Japan.

/Telegraph/