© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict outside Innerhodar in the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia region of Ukraine, June 15, 2023. (Reuters)/Alexander Ermoshenko/File Photo
(Reuters) – Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Tuesday of planning an attack on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which has long been the subject of mutual accusation and suspicion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had informed his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron about Russian “serious provocations” at the factory in southeastern Ukraine.
Russian forces seized the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility with six reactors, in the days following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, each side has regularly accused the other of bombing the plant and risking a major nuclear accident.
Rinat Karcha, advisor to the president of Rosenergoatom, which operates the Russian nuclear network, said that Ukraine plans to drop ammunition filled with nuclear waste transported from the country’s other five nuclear plants into the plant.
“Under cover of darkness on the night of July 5, the Ukrainian army will try to attack the Zaporizhia station using long-range precision equipment and kamikaze attack aircraft,” Karcha was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling Russian television. He provided no evidence to support his claims.
Zelensky wrote on Twitter that he had told Macron in a telephone conversation that “the occupation forces are preparing for dangerous provocations in Zaporizhia (the nuclear reactor)”.
He said he agreed with Macron to keep the situation under maximum control with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.
A statement from the Armed Forces of Ukraine quoted “operational data” as saying that “explosive devices” were placed on the surface of the plant’s third and fourth reactors on Tuesday. The attack was likely “in the near future”.
“If it is detonated, it will not damage the reactors, but it will create an image of bombing from the Ukrainian side,” the statement said on Telegram. She said that the Ukrainian army stands “ready to act under any circumstances”.
Zelensky and the Ukrainian military also did not provide any evidence for their assertions.
None of the reactors at the plant produces electricity.
In his nightly video message, Zelensky said Russia was planning “a simulated attack on the station. Or they may have some other type of scenario.”
“But in any case, the world sees – and does not fail to see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is Russia. And no one else.”
The Atomic Energy Agency wants to disarm the plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ international atomic energy agency, has been trying for more than a year to conclude an agreement to ensure the demilitarization of the plant and reduce the risk of any nuclear accident.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, has visited the plant three times since the Russian takeover, but has failed to reach any agreement to keep the facility safe from bombing.
Zelensky’s advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Ukrainian television that Grossi had proved ineffective in trying to maintain safety at the plant.
“Any catastrophe in Zaporizhye could have been averted if (Grossi) had been immediately clear,” Podolyak said, accusing the International Atomic Energy Agency of flippantness in its approach to the problem.
“That is, rather than this man’s buffoonery. When disaster strikes, he will say they had nothing to do with it and warn of the dangers.”
