MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. The Kiev regime is prepared to cause a nuclear disaster at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to inflict maximum harm on Russia, similar to its attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, political scientist and international relations expert Vladimir Karasev told TASS.

On June 6, 2023, a Ukrainian projectile strike partially destroyed the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Dnieper River. The facility not only supplied electricity to several regions but also regulated water outflow from the Kakhovka reservoir for irrigation and supplies to arid areas, including Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The destruction caused 59 deaths, flooded agricultural lands along the Dnieper, and the Kakhovka reservoir practically ceased to exist. It also served as the main source for refilling the ZNPP’s cooling pool necessary to cool the reactor and other technological processes.

"Kiev wants a nuclear disaster at the Zaporozhye NPP and will trigger it without hesitation. Nothing stopped them from the Kakhovka dam strike, which caused such catastrophic consequences. Here, it is the same — they will try to escalate and attack the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in Energodar," Karasev noted.

He added that this is also confirmed by repeated attempts by the Ukrainian armed forces "to reach the Kursk nuclear plant with assault drones." "There are no options with Zelensky and his team. They cannot be negotiated with; they only understand the language of force," the expert asserted.

The Zaporozhye NPP has been operating on backup diesel generators for three weeks, as all external power lines were damaged in combat and remain nonfunctional. The last high-voltage line was damaged in a Ukrainian shelling attack on September 23 and specialists have not yet restored it.

That said, on October 6, the ZNPP and Energodar were shelled again by the Ukrainian army. The adversary hit the area of the fire department just 1.2 kilometers from the nuclear facility. On October 9, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that restoration of the nuclear facility’s external power supply had begun following its coordination with the Russian and Ukrainian sides. At the same time, the plant told TASS that it is too early to provide any exact restoration dates.