MELITOPOL, July 11. /TASS/. All necessary measures are being taken to ensure the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant’s (ZNPP) safety and security, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on Tuesday after visiting the city of Energodar.
"I inspected the dry facility for storing spent nuclear fuel, spray cooling ponds, control room, and turbine island No4 at the Zaporozhye NPP. The plant’s director told me that all measures are being taken to ensure the plant’s nuclear safety, including those linked with the cooling system," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Ahead of Grossi’s visit to Russia on June 23, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of plotting a terror attack on the Zaporozhye NPP. He said as much to the United States, Brazil, India, China, European, Middle East and African countries but provided no evidence to back up his allegation.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov refuted these allegations as another lie. According to Karchaa, Zelensky’s statements may indicate that Kiev is plotting a terror attack or a strike on the ZNPP in a bid to drag NATO into the conflict.
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on June 23 that Russia was alarmed over Kiev’s repeated allegations that Russian forces were mining the nuclear facility. He noted that the IAEA mission that had recently visited the facility could see the absurdity of such allegations.
Located in the city of Energodar, the Zaporozhye NPP is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and has six power units with an aggregate capacity of 6 GW. Russian forces took control of the facility in February 2022. Since then, Ukrainian troops have been periodically shelling both Energodar’s residential quarters and the plant’s territory, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.