Russia Using Nuclear Power Plant As Military Base – Ukraine
EKO HOT BLOG reports that Russian forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have turned the site into a military base to launch attacks against Ukrainian positions.
The head of Ukraine’s nuclear power company, Petro Kotin told the BBC that the threat to the plant was “great”, but that it remained safe.
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For days, Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for attacks on the site, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, raising concerns of a major accident.
The complex has been under Russian occupation since early March, although Ukrainian technicians still operate it.
Over the weekend, Ukraine accused Russian forces of attacking the Soviet-era site, saying two workers were taken to hospital with shrapnel injuries and that three radiation sensors had been damaged.
Kotin, who heads Enerhoatom, said 500 Russian soldiers were at the plant, and that they had positioned rocket launchers in the area, claims that cannot be independently verified.
“They [Russian forces] use it [the power plant] like a shield against the Ukrainian forces, because nobody from Ukraine is going to do something,” Kotin said.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces know that these are Ukrainian personnel and this is a Ukrainian plant and there are Ukrainian people [there] so we aren’t going to kill our people, our staff and damage our infrastructure.”
The plant’s staff, Kotin said, were working under pressure and in danger, and some had been captured, beaten and tortured.
He said Russia’s plans were to disconnect the plant from Ukraine’s grid and eventually connect it to Russia’s system.
Oleksandr Sayuk, the mayor of Nikopol, which sits on the opposite side of the Dnipro river, told the BBC last week that his city was under Russian shelling “almost every night”, and that the attacks were being carried out by forces at the nuclear plant.
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The tensions have led to growing calls for international inspectors to be allowed to visit the site.
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