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Military operation in Ukraine

Ukrainian army has no chance to take Zaporozhye nuke plant by force — regional governor

Yevgeny Balitsky stressed that currently, the nuclear facility was operating in a regular mode

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Ukraine’s armed forces do not possess the resources to capture the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) by force, Zaporozhye Region Acting Governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.

"Today, we do not see any possibility <...> of the adversary physically seizing this power plant. Moreover, they have been absolutely exhausted by their incompetent counteroffensives where they lost their strike potential," he told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

The official stressed that currently, the nuclear facility was operating in a regular mode. He also refuted the claims by the Ukrainian side that the nuke plant was allegedly rigged with mines.

Located in Energodar, the Zaporozhye nuclear facility, with roughly 6GW of capacity, is the largest of its kind in Europe. Russia took control of the plant on February 28, 2022, in the first days of its special military operation in Ukraine. Since then, units of the Ukrainian army have periodically conducted shelling both of residential districts in nearby Energodar and the premises of the nuclear plant itself, by means of drones, heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS).

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Military operation in Ukraine

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