MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have carried out 12 strikes against the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) on Saturday, for the first time since September, Renat Karchaa, an advisor to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom company, said in a televised interview with Rossiya-24 news channel.

"Twelve strikes hit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant from 5.15 p.m. to 5.41 p.m. We mean the perimeter of the plant, but not the industrial zone or any other areas adjacent to the plant," Karchaa said.

Karchaa pointed out that the splash pool, which is part of the NPP cooling system, was hit six times, two more impacts were recorded in the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel and three more strikes were documented near Checkpoint 2.

"The bombardment was massive indeed," said the advisor to the Rosenergoatom CEO. "The plant has not been a target since late September," he added.

Karchaa emphasized that there were no casualties among the personnel.

"Today it ended up with damage and destruction that will be clarified tomorrow morning," he said. "Today is Saturday, so there are far fewer personnel at the plant than on weekdays. And luckily, there were no casualties, as it ended up with just damage," he added.

Karchaa warned that such shelling might trigger nuclear contamination.

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe. Russia took control of it at the end of February during its special military operation. Currently the plant’s six energy units have been switched to cold shutdown mode since the facility was being regularly shelled by Ukrainian troops. In September, following a visit by the IAEA’s mission, the agency urged the creation of a security protection zone around the plant to prevent emergency situations due to hostilities. Currently, the discussion of the security zone’s geographic parameters is underway.