After yesterday's strike by Russia, one of the three power units of the Zaporizhzhya NPP in Energodar worked emergency protection, on the morning of August 6 it turned off, the Ukrainian Energoatom reported .
The company called what is happening at the Zaporozhye NPP "nuclear terrorism by Russia."
Now the nuclear power plant is operating “with the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards,” the double shelling from the MLRS caused a serious risk to the safe operation of the plant, the statement says. The nitrogen-oxygen station and the combined auxiliary building were also seriously damaged.
The ZNPP is still occupied and controlled by the Russian military. However, the station continues to operate and produce electricity "for the needs of the energy system of Ukraine." The company called on the international community to take action to force Russia to release the ZNPP and transfer the power plant to Ukrainian control.
Earlier, The Insider sources at the ZNPP, occupied by Russia since March, reported suspicious activity of Russian soldiers on the territory of the station. The publication also has a video at its disposal, in which Russian military trucks drive into the territory of the nuclear power plant and unload some kind of cargo. According to this source, the machine room was mined.
According to another source, about 500 Russian soldiers and military equipment, including armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft guns and equipment for radiochemical reconnaissance, are on the territory of the station, and the area around the station is mined by Russian troops.
On August 5, Russia fired at the Zaporozhye NPP several times from multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), in total, on August 5, three “arrivals” were recorded at the plant site. At the same time, the pro-Russian authorities of the occupied Energodar accused Ukraine of shelling the ZNPP.
Energoatom claimed that the Russian military was forcing ZNPP employees to drain the cooling pools. According to the agency, a provocation was being prepared: the Russians intend to accuse Ukrainian nuclear scientists of storing weapons on the territory of the station. To do this, they detained several workers and tortured them to confess that, allegedly back in March, they dropped some kind of weapon – explosives or shells – into the concrete bowls of the cooling pools at the ZNPP. In July, Andrei Goncharuk, a ZNPP hydroshop diver , died after being tortured by the Russian military, “forcing him to come up with a justification for the need to drain the cooling pools.”