Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian military, which has controlled Zaporyzhia since early March, of using the Ukrainian nuclear power plant as a nuclear weapon, creating “the greatest danger in Europe.”
“They occupied our nuclear plant. The largest in Europe. That means six times Chernobyl,” Zelensky said, referring to the 1986 nuclear accident in Ukraine, in an interview with US network ABC News.
This “means the greatest danger in Europe (…), means that [as forças russas] use nuclear weapons“said the Ukrainian head of state.
Zelensky argued that “there should be no military equipment on the territory. There should be no plant workers surrounded by people with firearms.”
Russia and Ukraine have been accusing each other for weeks of carrying out attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Russia and Ukraine exchange accusations for the attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
On Sunday, Russia accused Ukraine of having tried to attack the territory of Zaporyjia with eight drones on Saturday.
Also on Sunday, the independent online newspaper The Insider, specializing in investigative journalism, fact check and political analysis, based in the city of Riga, Latvia, published a video about the Russian attacks that occurred on the night of September 2-3 from the territory of the nuclear power plant.
The video shows that Russia has missile launch systems located at various points situated in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant.
On Friday, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia had removed all military equipment from the nuclear power plant, ahead of inspection by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts.
Zelensky told ABC News that he is not considering a controlled shutdown of the plant to prevent radiation leaks due to the country’s reliance on this energy infrastructure, especially during the winter.
“I know that the Russians would like the reactors to be disconnected from the Ukrainian network to be connected to the Russian network, but we do not agree with these ideas,” said the head of state.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces, “has lost its connection again” with the electricity grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose experts are on site, announced this Saturday in a statement.
The last line still in operation “has been damaged,” the IAEA explained, noting that the other three had been “previously lost during the conflict.”
Already on August 25, the exchange was completely disconnected from the Ukrainian network for the first time, before the connection was restored.
AFP highlights that the situation in Zaporizhia worries many international leaders, since the area has been the target of several bombardments, which raises fears of a nuclear disaster.
On Thursday, after an inspection of the facilities, the IAEA director said that the “physical integrity” of the factory had been “violated on several occasions”, stressing that this “cannot continue to happen”.
However, Rafael Grossi did not name those responsible for the situation.
Source: Observadora
