The shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant could lead to a nuclear catastrophe, said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to him, representatives of the agency should inspect the station.
“I am extremely concerned about yesterday's shelling of Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which indicates a very real danger of a nuclear catastrophe that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond. Any military firepower directed at or away from an objective would be tantamount to playing with fire, with potentially disastrous consequences. To prevent the situation from spiraling further out of control, the presence of the IAEA to provide technical support in the field of nuclear safety is of paramount importance,” he said in a statement .
At the same time, Grossi did not mention the possible storage of ammunition by Russia on the territory of the station. On August 5, The Insider reported on the suspicious activity of Russian soldiers on the territory of the nuclear power plant. Russian trucks drove into the territory of the station and began to unload. According to one of the sources, the turbine hall of the first power unit was mined. Another source said that about 500 Russian soldiers and military equipment, in particular, armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft installations and equipment for radiochemical reconnaissance, are on the territory of the ZNPP.
On the same day, the station was shelled. The Ukrainian "Energoatom" said that it was a provocation, and the Russian military fired, the Russian side claims that it is firing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the source, because of the shelling, the backup power was cut off throughout the station, and at Unit 3, 2 security systems went off and diesels started (this means that the unit's security system was de-energized).
Also, Energoatom reported that the Russian military forced ZNPP employees to drain the cooling pools. This was necessary for a provocation – the Russians want to accuse the Ukrainian workers of the station of storing weapons. Employees were tortured to force confessions that they dropped explosives or shells into the concrete bowls of the cooling pools. As a result of torture, Andrey Goncharuk, a diver of the ZNPP hydroshop , died , who was tortured by the Russian military, “forcing him to come up with a justification for the need to drain the cooling pools.”
