Russia has told its workers at the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant not to come to work today, Ukraine claims.
Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine’s main military intelligence agency, said employees at Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom were ordered not to appear on Friday – sparking fears they were planning a “large-scale provocation” at the plant.
The warning was issued late Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western city of Lviv to discuss issues including the security of the Zaporozhye facility.
President Erdogan, on his first visit to Ukraine since the outbreak of war, said he was “concerned” about the situation there, adding: “We don’t want another Chernobyl.”
Ukraine says Russia has told workers at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant not to come to work today amid fears of a “major provocation” there (file image).
Ukraine has started rehearsals for a nuclear disaster in Zaporizhzhia amid explosions around the nearby Russian-held nuclear power plant said to have been caused by Moscow’s troops
Ukrainian soldiers stand guard as rescue workers wheel a volunteer – posing as a nuclear disaster victim – through a supermarket parking lot that would serve as a reception center for the wounded in the event of true fallout
Guterres, who is demanding that independent UN inspectors be allowed access to the facility to ensure its safety, said any attack on it would amount to “suicide.”
“We have to say it like it is – any potential harm to Zaporizhia is suicide,” he said.
Military intelligence of Ukraine said: “Considering the number of weapons currently on the territory of the nuclear power plant, as well as repeated provocative shelling, there is a high probability of a large-scale terrorist attack on the nuclear power plant.”
Home to six nuclear reactors, Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and accounts for about a fifth of Ukraine’s annual energy consumption.
It is located near Crimea, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which divides Ukraine in two.
Russia has occupied the compound since the beginning of the war, when troops took control after a brief but alarming firefight that set an administrative building on fire.
The situation there has been tense but stable in recent months, but has worsened in recent weeks as Ukraine attempts to oust Russia from the south.
Turkish President Erdogan (left) and UN chief Guterres (right) meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left and right) in Lviv today to discuss security in Zaporizhia
Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors (centre) providing around a fifth of the country’s annual energy supply before the war
A Ukrainian emergency worker in a hazmat suit takes part in drills in the city of Zaporizhia in preparation for a meltdown at the nearby nuclear power plant
Explosions around the site were reported several times, with both Russia and Ukraine blaming the other to blame.
Kyiv says Russia has turned the facility into a military base and has planted explosives in and around the reactors to protect them from strikes.
Ukraine, which still has employees working at the plant as effective Russian prisoners, adds that Moscow’s men are trying to disconnect the power plant from the main power grid and divert power to occupied Crimea.
This is dangerous, they argue, because the station’s disconnection from the mains means its reactor cooling system must run on diesel generators, which have limited power.
In addition, they themselves accuse Russian troops of causing explosions around the power plant as part of a “false flag” operation, which they can blame on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s nuclear regulator says the Russian commander in charge of the facility has told his troops they must be prepared to blow it up rather than let Ukraine retake it.
Moscow has dismissed these proposals, saying it is the Ukrainians who are attacking the plant, blaming Russia for any consequences.
Zelenskyy has called on the UN to ensure security at the facility, blaming Russia for “premeditated” attacks on the facility.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia’s seizure of the facility “poses a serious threat” and called for a Russian withdrawal and inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog.
A Ukrainian soldier smokes a cigarette somewhere on the front lines in Zaporzhia province, amid a campaign to expel Russia from the south of the country
A Ukrainian soldier readies his rifle for battle amid fighting with Russian forces, somewhere in the southern Zaporizhia province of the country
Ukrainian soldiers monitor an area near a front line in Zaporizhia province, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine
On Thursday, responders in Zaporizhzhia — a town that shares its name with the plant but is actually 30 miles away and under Ukrainian control — began rehearsing their response to a disaster at the plant.
Men and women dressed from head to toe in hazmat suits, gas masks, gloves and rubber boots hosed down volunteers posing as radiation victims.
They were also wheeled around a supermarket car park on stretchers and taken through a medical tent on stretchers attached to a conveyor belt.
In the event of a meltdown at the Zaporizhizhia plant, the parking lot would serve as a detention center for thousands affected by the immediate consequences.
Russia is now almost six months in what should have been a days-long war in Ukraine to overthrow the government and install a puppet regime in Kyiv.
It missed that goal and also missed the more modest goal of conquering the entire eastern Donbass region.
Luhansk — one of two provinces that make up Donbass — is now under Russian control, but troops have captured only about half of the other province, Donetsk.
Perhaps Russia’s greatest military success came in southern Ukraine, where Putin’s forces captured the city of Mariupol and the entire coast of the Sea of Azov, and managed to establish a “land bridge” between Donbass and occupied Crimea.
To reverse those gains, Ukraine has announced a major counterattack in the south with the aim of retaking Kherson – a strategically important city on both sides of the Dnipro River – and eventually driving the Russians out of Crimea.
Ukraine has so far managed to disrupt Russian supply lines by blowing up bridges and railway lines, and has targeted two airfields in Crimea – hampering Russia’s ability to provide air cover for its troops.
However, Kiev’s forces are struggling to retake significant territory, while Russia has fortified its positions to make capture more difficult.