MELITOPOL, March 3. /TASS/. Director of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) Yury Chernichuk has slammed Ukraine’s artillery attack on the plant’s satellite city of Energodar as an indirect violation of the local ceasefire that was declared to repair a power line feeding the facility.
"Whereas we cannot say that this was a direct violation of the regime of silence by the Ukrainian side, but, indirectly, it was indeed a violation of the ceasefire between us," he said in a video address posted on the ZNPP’s Telegram channel.
According to Chernichuk, although the site struck by Ukrainian troops is located far from the zone covered by the local ceasefire, the plant’s employees and workers engaged in repair operations, as well as their families are residents of this city. Therefore, the Ukrainian attack affected them in this or that way.
He recalled that the agreement on a temporary ceasefire was reached between Russia and Ukraine with the mediation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to repair the Ferrosplavnaya-1 power line that was damaged in Ukraine’s attack on Fenruary 10.
By attacking the nuclear plant’s satellite city, the Kiev regime sought to exert "colossal psychological pressure" on the city residents, the nuclear power plant’s employees, and specialists involved in repair works, the plant’s director stressed.
Earlier in the day, Energodar Mayor Maxim Pukhov said that the city came under artillery shelling by Ukrainian troops in the nighttime. The strike hit the courtyard of an apartment building, injuring a civilian. Many apartments were left without windows, and parked cars were damaged.
On February 27, CEO of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said that a local ceasefire has been in effect since 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (4:00 a.m. GMT) in the area surrounding the Zaporozhye NPP. This has allowed repair crews, including Rosatom engineers, to begin work on restoring the Zaporozhye Thermal Power Plant’s open switchgear and the Ferrosplavnaya line, damaged on February 10 by shelling from Ukrainian forces.
Since then, the station has been powered by the only Dneprovskaya power line. Due to the complexity of the work, the repairs will take at least a week. Agreements to establish a local ceasefire in the area of the Zaporozhye NPP for repairs to the Zaporozhye Thermal Power Plant’s open switchgear and the external power supply line of the Ferrosplavnaya-1 station were reached with the participation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian National Guard, and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and under the auspices of Rosatom.
On March 2, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated that the situation at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant remained extremely difficult due to problems with its power supply. However, repair work to restore the plant’s external power supply line is continuing under the supervision of the international agency’s specialists.