MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee keeps monitoring the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP in case of provocations by the Ukrainian military, the IC’s press-service told the media on Thursday.
"According to evidence available on August 19, the Kiev regime is plotting a major provocation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. It is planned to implement a criminal scheme by opening artillery fire at the nuclear power plant during the UN Secretary General’s visit to Ukraine. Ukrainian nationalists intend to groundlessly accuse Russia of triggering a technogenic disaster. According to experts, such criminal acts create the risk of an emergency," the IC said.
The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar is controlled by Russian troops. Over the past few days, Ukrainian forces have delivered several strikes on the NPP’s premises, using, among other things, drones, heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems. The majority of attacks have been deflected by air defense systems, however, shells hit some infrastructure facilities and the vicinity of a nuclear waste storage facility. The chief of Energodar’s military-civilian administration Alexander Volga said on Thursday all services had been alerted in case of provocations by the Ukrainian military at the ZNPP.
Also, the IC said that the Ukrainian forces had shelled the city of Svetlodarsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Local residents who were in the city’s center during the distribution of water near a school and a hospital were attacked. According to early reports three people, including one child, were killed and twelve others injured. "According to the latest reports a woman born in 1961 was killed and several civilians were injured as a result of the Ukrainian forces’ shelling the Petrovsky and Kirovsky districts of Donetsk, the urban community Golmovsky and the Nikitovsky district of Gorlovka," the IC said.