MELITOPOL, April 15. /TASS/. Claims by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) that the Russian Armed Forces are purportedly faking strikes on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) are false, Renat Karchaa, an official with Russia’s state nuclear power corporation Rosenergoatom, told Channel One television.

"The Ukrainian regime is singing the same old tune. We heard something similar in 2022 that we are attacking ourselves. Yet this is, of course, a total lie. And in general, everything that happened at the Zaporozhye nuclear station is [a link] in the same chain of events as Crocus [terrorist attack] and the shelling attacks on Belgorod and Kursk. These strikes [by Ukrainian forces] have no significance from the point of view of achieving any military goals or tasks. These strikes are aimed at only one thing - to intimidate, to sow panic and, essentially, to undermine the situation from the inside," Karchaa said.

He added that this way, "the Ukrainian regime together with its Western handlers is trying to compensate for their failures on the battlefield." "Undoubtedly, everything that is going on today, carries a direct threat to nuclear safety," the official reiterated.

On April 5-9, Ukrainian troops delivered several strikes on the ZNPP’s premises. In the area of the cargo port and the nitrogen-oxygen station, a truck that had just delivered food to a canteen was damaged and three people were injured. One of the drones hit the roof of Unit 6. Later, another Ukrainian kamikaze drone was downed over the nuke plant, and its debris fell on the roof of the same power unit. On April 14, Yevgeniya Yashina, ZNPP public relations director, said that the situation in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant and the city of Energodar remained tense with Ukrainian drones flying overhead.