MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Russia has called on international organizations to condemn the criminal actions of the Kiev authorities, which engage in acts of nuclear terrorism, the Russian defense ministry said on Friday.
"We call on international organizations to condemn the criminal acts of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zenesky regime, which engage in acts of nuclear terrorism," the ministry said.
The ministry stressed that in case of further provocations at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the entire responsibility for disruptions in its operation will rest on the Kiev authorities.
According to the ministry, Ukrainian troops fired twenty 152mm artillery shells at the Zaporozhye nuclear plant and the city of Energodar from 16:20 to 17:24 on Friday. Shelling was conducted from the positions of Ukraine’s 45th artillery brigade near the settlement of Marganets on the opposite bank of the Kremenchug dam lake controlled by the Ukrainian army.
The shelling was followed by the combustion of hydrogen at the Zaporozhye plant’s hydrogen station. The fire was quickly put out. Apart from that, some of the equipment of the third unit was cut off electricity and the capacity of the fourth unit was reduced. The city of Energodar has been partially cut off electricity and water supplies.
The ministry stressed that by a lucky chance the nearby oil and mazut facility and the oxygen station were intact and a possible radiation accident at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant was avoided.
Especially cynical is the fact that this provocation was staged on the backdrop of a he Review Conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in New York.
The Zaporozhye NPP is Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. With a capacity of around 6,000 megawatt, it generated a fourth of Ukraine’s electricity. Since 1996, it was part of Ukraine’s Energoatom generating company. In March 2022, control over the nuclear plant came over to Russian forces. Now, the plant is operating at 70% of its capacity due to the oversupply of electricity on the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye region. It is planned to supply electricity from the plant to Crimea.