For more than two years, Russian soldiers have been controlling the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The occupiers use the station for further shelling of Ukraine and storage of military equipment.
Points of attention
- The President of Ukraine warns of the threat of a disaster at the ZNPP due to the Russian presence at the station.
- The return of the ZNPP to Ukrainian control is crucial for ensuring the radiation safety of the nation and the whole of Europe.
- The Russian occupiers organized a fire and a drone attack on the territory of the ZNPP, which provoked the reaction of the IAEA and the world community.
- Experts have not established the cause of the fire at the ZNPP, but found damage likely caused by a drone explosion, which indicates serious threats to the plant's safety.
The Russian Federation is blackmailing the world with the threat of a disaster at the ZNPP
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Russia uses the territory of the ZNPP as a platform for attacks on Nikopol and other nearby communities, stores military equipment and ammunition on the territory of the ZNPP.
Only the return of the station to Ukrainian control will mean full compliance with all safety standards and, in general, the return of the situation around the ZNPP to normality.
Volodymyr Zelenskyi
President of Ukraine
According to the president, Ukraine has guaranteed the highest level of security of nuclear facilities for decades.
This will continue to be the case, but for this the Russian presence at the ZANP must cease. For more than two years, the occupiers have been controlling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe — Zaporizhzhya NPP. And the Russian presence invariably means a fundamental threat to the radiation safety of our country, the whole of Europe and the world, Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted.
The Russian army staged a provocation at the ZNPP
On August 11, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced that the Russian occupiers had set a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. He called on the IAEA and the world community to respond to the incident.
At the same time, there were no changes in the radiation state in the Zaporizhzhya NPP area.
Yevhen Yevtushenko, the head of the Nikopol RVA, said that the ZNPP is working normally, and the Russians probably set fire to a large number of car tires in the cooling towers. Cooling tower number one is located approximately one kilometer from the power units of the station.
Instead, the Russian occupiers blamed Ukraine for the shelling of Energodar and declared that the radiation background around the ZNPP was normal.
Subsequently, IAEA experts conducted an inspection of the cooling tower after the fire at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. However, they could not establish the cause of the fire.
On August 18, representatives of the IAEA reported that there was a drone strike at the occupied Zaporizhia NPP, which took place outside the station's security zone.
According to preliminary reports, the drone exploded near the cooling ponds, about 100 meters from the Dnipro transmission line, which is the only 750-kilovolt line that supplies power to the ZNPP.
An IAEA team that surveyed the incident site found damage likely caused by a drone explosion.
