Ukraine has new evidence Russia is plotting a “terrorist” attack on Zaporizhzhia power plant that will result in radiation leak, President Volodymr Zelensky has warned.
The Kremlin dismissed the allegation as “another lie”, and said a team of United Nations nuclear inspectors had visited the plant and rated everything highly.
In a video statement, Mr Zelensky said that Kyiv had received intelligence about an attack on the facility – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – that is currently occupied by Russia.
He added that they had shared the information with partners including the United States China, Europe, Brazil and India.
“Intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – a terrorist act with radiation leakage,” he said.
“Radiation has no state borders. Whomever it will hit is deterred only by the direction of the wind,” he added.
“This time it should not be like Kakhakova,” he said, referring to the hydroelectric dam Kyiv says Moscow blew up earlier this month.
“The world has been warned, so the world can and must act.”
Mr Zelensky did not say what evidence Ukraine based this assertion on. This week the country’s military intelligence chief accused Russia of mining the cooling pool used to keep reactors at the plan cool.
The six-reactor complex has been under occupation since shortly after Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The two sides have accused each other of shelling the vast facility, and international efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around it have failed so far.
Ukrainian officials have told The Independent that Russia is using “scorched earth tactics” to scupper a new Ukrainian counteroffensive and may have no qualms in targeting Zaporizhzhia power plant if backed into a corner.
Kyiv raised the alarm after the Kakhovka dam blew up on 6 June, pouring millions of cubic metres of water across southern Ukraine – an act it blamed on Russia. The torrent of water submerged whole towns and villages and left tens of thousands of people without access to piped water. Moscow has denied the accusations.
“We know the Russians can do this, we knew they could blow up the Kakhovka dam and we know they could target the [Zaporizhzhia] power plant, “ Taras Tyshchenko, head of centre for disease control and prevention in Zaporizhzhia city, told The Independent.
At the ministry of health facility, Tyshchenko’s teams are already testing the air and water for radiation and disease after the dam explosion.
A view shows the damaged Chonhar bridge connecting Russian-held parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region to the Crimean peninsula
Mr Tyshcehno said the same teams were prepared for the worst case scenario: three rounds of training had already been held in case the nuclear power plant is targeted.
““This is a very serious threat, the scale of which cannot be predicted in advance,” he said.
“This incident will not be a local or even a national one, it is a global incident. It will have a significant impact on the environment not only in Zaporizhzhia region, Dnipro region, or in Ukraine as a whole.
“This will be an incident that can definitely affect all our neighbouring countries, especially those that have access to the Black Sea.”
A Ukrainian serviceman of 28th brigade shoots a Maxim gun towards Russian positions at the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region
