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The Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis says that he is not surprised at the actions of Belarus, which have made the long-planned visit by the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) to the Ostrovets nuclear power plant (NPP) impossible.

“Lithuania has been warning about the unsafe Ostrovets NPP, but Belarus did nothing to ensure that nuclear safety and environmental standards are met. The recent action by Minsk is yet another example of this, and we are no longer surprised. The refusal to grant access to nuclear safety experts sends a very serious and dangerous signal to the region and to the whole of the European Union that our hope to ensure nuclear safety at the Belarusian NPP is lost. We are ready to work together with the European Commission to evaluate and to identify instruments that can help ensure that electricity generated by unsafe NPPs does not enter the EU's energy market, as agreed at the European Council meeting last week," said Lithuania's Foreign Minister Landsbergis.

Experts from European countries were ready to hold online discussions with Belarusian representatives on 14-22 December and to visit the NPP on 17 December. However, the officials from the Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (Gosatomnadzor) of Belarus did not participate in preparatory talks. Thus, the head of the European team of experts was forced to cancel the expert visit to the Belarusian NPP.

Bearing in mind that the majority of stress tests recommendations and other recommendations of international experts have not been implemented, Lithuania has constantly called on responsible Belarusian authorities to stop the Unit 1 of the Ostrovets NPP and to solve all safety problems without delay. Lithuania and the international community are well aware of multiple operational incidents that have occurred since the commissioning of the Ostrovets NPP and have posed a threat not only to the safety of Lithuania, but of the entire Europe.