A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant outside Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region of Russian-controlled Ukraine, June 15, 2023.ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/Reuters
Ukraine and Russia have accused the other of planning attacks that could set off nuclear disaster.
Just weeks after conducting emergency response drills, Kyiv warned again that Russia is threatening to attack Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of doing the same.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station has long been the subject of mutual recriminations and suspicions. Russian troops seized the station in the days following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Each side has regularly accused the other of shelling around the plant and risking a major nuclear mishap.
Anastasiya Ringis: Russia is playing with nuclear fire in Zaporizhzhia
But, in his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was now planning to “simulate an attack on the plant.”
”The whole world must now realize that common security depends entirely on global attention to the actions of the occupiers at the plant. Russia must clearly realize that the world sees the scenarios terrorists are preparing for, and the world is ready to respond. Radiation threatens everyone in the world, and the nuclear power plant must be fully protected from any radiation incidents.”
In an earlier statement, Ukrainian armed forces quoted “operational data” as saying that “explosive devices” had been placed on the roof of the station’s third and fourth reactors on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Russia’s nuclear network operator meanwhile said Ukraine planned to drop ammunition laced with nuclear waste transported from another of the country’s five nuclear stations on the plant.
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has been trying for more than a year to get all sides to agree to demilitarize the plant.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has visited the plant three times since the Russian takeover, most recently on June 15. So far, he’s failed to reach any agreement to keep the facility safe from shelling.
An adviser to Zelensky reportedly told Ukrainian television that Grossi had proved ineffective.
Worries have also grown over the potential for an accident at the plant after a local dam used to cool reactors was destroyed last month on the Dnipro River.
Ukraine said Russia had destroyed a hydroelectric power plant at the site from the inside, while Moscow blamed Kyiv.
The IAEA said at the time that a local pond meant the plant should still be stable for “some months.”