The West describes the Russian assault on the Zaporizhia plant as “madness”, which could have caused an accident “ten times more serious than that of Chernobyl”
«Nuclear terrorism». This is how the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, described this Friday the seizure by Russian troops of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest plant in Europe, made up of six reactors that generate half of the atomic energy produced by the country. The facilities were the scene during the night of a fierce fight with the Ukrainian defenders, the magnitude of which precipitated international alarm at the risk of an accident with incalculable consequences.
The inspectors of the nuclear energy agency were mobilized to detect any possible radioactive leak – which, due to the direction of the wind, would have affected the Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar in the first place – and the US president himself, Joe Biden, called for phone to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, who declared in the morning: “We have survived a night that could end history.”
The Russian units made use of machine gun tracer ammunition, missiles and shells fired from the tanks surrounding the compound. One of them hit an administration building. A fire broke out and one of the reactors had to be shut down. Due to heavy bombardment, firefighters were slow to access the plant to extinguish the fire, which was eventually brought under control.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, warned that, in the event of an explosion at the plant, it would have caused “a catastrophe ten times greater than that of Chernobyl.” The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certified that “the fire in the area of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant did not affect the main equipment of the plant”, but, instead, the three upper floors of the administrative building and a laboratory were destroyed. by the flames
The first to give the alert was the complex’s spokesman, Andréi Tuz, with an expressive message: “Stop this!” Hours later, the Russians gained access to the facilities, which came under their control. Likewise, the military retained the plant’s personnel in order to guarantee its operation. The National Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine issued a statement confirming that “staff remain in their jobs, with operational staff monitoring the status of generation units and ensuring that they operate in line with procedural requirements for safe operations.” ». The same body stressed that there was no leak of radioactive material. At press time, Zaporizhia was operating with only one of its reactors. The first was out of service and another four were in the cooling process.
The plant is located in the town of Energodar. At the moment, the intentions of the Russian Army are unknown, although some sources considered it feasible that they would use the plant to threaten a possible energy collapse that would leave a large part of the country without service.
In a video released by the Ukrainian Presidency, Zelensky accused Moscow of wanting to repeat a catastrophe like Chernobyl. “We alert the whole world that no other country except Russia has ever fired on nuclear power plants. It is the first time in our history, the first time in the history of mankind. This terrorist state is now resorting to nuclear terror,” he said. On the part of Moscow, the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, pointed out that his military took this area on February 28 and that the fire yesterday morning was the work of Ukrainian “saboteurs”.
The assault has caused deep concern in the international arena. Most Western governments called the assault on the atomic plant “madness” that “endangered the security of Europe.” NATO considered that there was a clear “irresponsibility” on the part of the Kremlin and both France and the United Kingdom hinted that the attack was deliberate, which suqe “is clearly prohibited by International Law and the Geneva Conventions.”
The Zaporizhia plant has six of the fifteen operational reactors in the whole of Ukraine, making it the main supplier of energy to the country. It is also the largest in Europe and the third in the world. It entered service in 1985 when the USSR still existed, a year before the Chernobyl accident, a plant now under the control of Russian troops after heavy fighting in its vicinity at the beginning of the Russian offensive.