MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The line of contact should be pushed back at least 300 kilometers away from the city of Energodar to ensure the safety of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), Renat Karchaa, an advisor to the chief executive of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power plant operator, said in an interview with TASS.

"We largely believe that stability at and the development of the ZNPP depends on changes along the line of contact. Once it is pushed far enough away, by at least 300 kilometers, it will be possible to speak far more confidently about the real prospects for development and the absence of threats," Karchaa noted.

According to him, a disaster at the plant is out of the question at the moment, "of course, as long as people at the Pentagon don’t send more advanced and longer-ranged weapons [to Kiev] and their mentally unstable wards in Ukraine don’t use those to attack the plant." Karchaa added that in case of a disaster, radioactive contamination would not impact the US but "would cover a large part of Europe."

Karchaa emphasized that the unstable security situation at the Zaporozhye NPP was affecting the facility’s development. He specified that two power units were undergoing repairs although "work has to be carried out in a much more cautious manner, with a focus on the safety of people, which certainly is significantly slowing the pace of repairs." "Ukraine can send a reconnaissance drone followed by combat drones, or conduct an artillery shelling of the plant at any moment," the expert explained.

Karchaa also stated that the power plant would definitely start to operate and produce energy in the near future.

The six-reactor, six-gigawatt Zaporozhye NPP, located in Energodar, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russian forces took control of the facility in late February 2022. Since then, the Ukrainian army has been shelling both the residential areas of Energodar and the power plant’s premises using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.