Both the Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi have made strong claims about the planned attacks on the nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian and the Russian governments accuse each other of planning the attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, reports the news agencies AFP and Reuters and the British newspaper The Guardian.
Advisor to the Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom Renat Kartšaa has accused Ukraine of planning an attack on a nuclear power plant in the dark on Wednesday.
Kartšaa claims that Ukraine plans to use “precise long-range weapons” and drones. According to Kartša, Ukraine’s plan is to attack the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant with projectiles steeled with radioactive waste obtained from other nuclear power plants in the country.
On Sunday, the mayor of the town of Enerhodar, which is located near the nuclear power plant Dmytro Orlov said that some of Rosatom’s employees are gone nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi discussed Russia’s possible plans with his French colleague on Tuesday Emmanuel Macron with.
“I warned Emmanuel Macron that the occupying forces are preparing dangerous provocations at the Zaporizhzhia power plant,” Zelenskyi said in a statement after his phone conversation with Macron.
Zelenskyi said, among other things, that the Russian forces have placed “objects resembling explosives” on the roof of the nuclear power plant. According to the armed forces, detonating these should not damage the units of the power plant.
American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its daily review on Tuesdaythat Russia’s “provocative statements” are likely part of a larger Russian information warfare plan.
According to ISW, Russia’s purpose is to show that Ukraine is operating irresponsibly at the power plant before next week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. At the same time, Russia is trying to convince the Ukrainian forces not to counterattack the parts of the Zaporizhzhia region that Russia has occupied.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has visited the region several times during the conflict, and Ukraine says that the parties will continue to cooperate. The IAEA has not confirmed either side’s claims that the attack was planned.
Russia occupied the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant shortly after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after which its fate has been closely monitored. The nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe in terms of production.
IAEA said on Tuesdaythat the nuclear power plant’s last connection to the external power grid was disconnected in the morning of the same day.
This means that the vital safety systems will only get power from the backup power source, which was repaired last weekend. An external power grid is needed, for example, to pump cooling water to the power plant.
According to the IAEA, the power plant’s connection to the external power grid has been interrupted seven times during the war in Ukraine.
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