Six Russian commanders sentenced in absentia for 2022 assault on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Ukrainian court has convicted six Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) officers in absentia of violating the laws and customs of war over the assault on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.
The convicted officersThe convicted officers, who held the ranks of major general and commanded battalion tactical groups, are:
- Dombrovskiy Aleksey;
- Chistyakov Dmitriy;
- Akhmedkhanov Muradkhan;
- Dovgan Sergey;
- Lukachov Yuriy;
- Reshetnev Aleksey.
These six officers led the assault on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which investigators have described as one of the most dangerous episodes of the war, as an accident at the facility could have triggered a radiation disaster.
“The actions of the occupying forces could have led to the destruction of the reactors’ protective barriers and a large-scale release of radioactive substances. The consequences of such a scenario could have affected not only Ukraine but also other European countries,” Prosecutor General Oleksiy Kravchenko said.
Each Rosgvardia officer was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Russian forces occupied the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the night of March 4, 2022. Since then, the facility has remained under Russian control and has regularly faced disruptions to its power supply. More recently, the plant also experienced a water shortage.
All of the plant’s power units are in “cold shutdown”, a state in which the reactors do not generate electricity and operate at low pressure and temperature. They can remain in this state for an extended period only if there is a stable external power supply.
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