The Ukrainian "Energoatom" accused Russia of shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the pro-Russian "administration" of the Zaporozhye region, in turn, said that Ukraine had carried out the shelling. The parties continue to blame each other, with both Ukraine and Russia reporting "five arrivals."
According to Energoatom, grass caught fire in a small area on the territory of the station, no one was injured, however, as a result of shelling at the station, it was not possible to carry out a “shift change” on time. For the safety of nuclear scientists, buses with personnel were turned back to Energodar. Until the situation returns to normal, the last shift will continue to work. The company said in a statement that after the shelling of the station by Russia, there were "five more arrivals" in the area of the fire station, located near the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
Rogov's message is almost the same as the Ukrainian company's statement, but he blames Ukraine for the shelling. He also reported "five arrivals", grass fires and a failed "shift change". But his message says that the strikes on the nuclear power plant are carried out using "MLRS and heavy artillery from the right bank of the Dnieper, from the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region, from the settlements of Nikopol, Marganets and Tomakovka, controlled by the Zelensky regime."
Residents of Energodar are posting videos online showing a plume of smoke.
On August 5, Russia fired at the Zaporizhzhya NPP several times from multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), in total 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. The Ukrainian "Energoatom" reported that after the strikes, emergency protection worked, and called what was happening "nuclear terrorism by Russia." The Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Armed Forces of Ukraine with Energoatom of Ukraine directly accuse each other of nuclear terrorism.
The Insider's sources at the Zaporizhzhya NPP reported suspicious activity of Russian soldiers on the territory of the plant. 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 installations and equipment for radiochemical reconnaissance, are on the territory of the station, and the area around the station is mined by Russian troops. Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, confirmed in The Insider's stream that Russia is indeed carrying out mining on the territory of the ZNPP, and also stores shells of "different capacity and different power" right in the shops.
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.”