He assures that a missile bombardment affected one of the buildings of the Pivdennoukrainsk plant, although without causing damage to the reactor or victims
The Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom has accused Russian forces of attacking the industrial area of the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, located in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine. The bombardment, as reported by the company in a statement, took place at dawn on Monday “with missiles. One of them fell three hundred meters from the reactors.
“The plant building was damaged by the blast wave. The glass of more than a hundred windows was broken. Three high-voltage power lines were also cut, “added the note, also stressing that” one of the generators of the Oleksandrivska hydroelectric power plant was disconnected, which is part of the entire Pivdennoukrainsk energy complex.
However, the same information confirmed that the plant’s three reactors are operating normally, that the explosions did not cause any casualties among the personnel, and that the radioactivity levels are within limits. Pivdennoukrainsk is the second largest nuclear power plant in the country after Zaporizhia. As it happens, the Mykolaiv region has been under constant fire from Russian rockets for weeks.
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, denounced what happened yesterday and published on his Telegram channel a video from a security camera of the moment in which the missile fell near the plant and photos of the destruction caused. One of the images shows a huge sinkhole next to the Pivdennoukrainsk energy complex, indicating that it was caused by the rocket explosion.
«Nikolaevkskaya area. At night, a rocket fell three hundred meters from the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant. There was a brief power outage. The windows of buildings on the territory of the plant were damaged. The invaders wanted to fire again, but they forgot what a nuclear power plant is and how dangerous it is. Russia endangers the whole world. We must stop it before it’s too late,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Three facilities damaged
Pivdennoukrainsk is already the third Ukrainian nuclear power plant to suffer the effects of the war started by Russia on February 24. The first was the infamous Chernobyl plant, located northwest of kyiv, which was taken over by the Russian Army in the first days of the invasion. Later, its facilities were abandoned once the order was given in Moscow to withdraw the troops to Donbas. In Chernobyl, in April 1986, the largest accident in the history of the civil nuclear industry occurred.
In early March, Russian soldiers also seized the Zaporizhia atomic plant, where they still remain today. On September 1, a group of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) arrived at this plant, led by its director, Rafael Grossi. They worked for a few hours and left several colleagues there for a few more days to complete the checks. After preparing a report, they issued a joint statement asking Russia to withdraw its troops and personnel from the Zaporizhia plant, a request rejected by Moscow.
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