Russian occupiers sentence Nataliia Shulha, employee of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, to 15 years for alleged sabotage in Enerhodar city

The occupying “regional court” in Melitopol has sentenced Nataliia Shulha, a resident of Enerhodar and an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), to 15 years of imprisonment for “sabotage.” The woman was accused of alleged cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and an attempt to blow up a power line in June 2024, as reported by the publication “RIA South.”

ZNPP employee Nataliia Shulha

The 56-year-old Nataliia Shulha was also fined 500,000 Russian rubles.

According to the occupiers’ version of events, from May to June 2024, an alleged SBU operative contacted Nataliia via the Telegram messenger and proposed that she join the resistance movement to carry out acts of sabotage in the Zaporizhzhia region. She allegedly agreed to cooperate with the aim of destroying enterprises, transport infrastructure facilities, and means of communication.

On the evening of June 11, Shulha allegedly retrieved a homemade explosive device from a cache, and the following morning, she brought it to a power line support located on Naberezhna Street in Enerhodar. There, according to the Russian investigator, who illegally crossed the Ukrainian border and is operating illegally on Ukrainian territory, the woman attached the explosive device to the support with tape, moved 40 meters away, and pressed the button on a remote detonator. The explosion was allegedly intended to leave residents of the 3rd microdistrict of Enerhodar without electricity, but Russian security forces prevented the “sabotage.”

Following the illegal detention, the occupiers released a video where the power plant employee allegedly prepares an act of sabotage.

The mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, later expressed his conviction that the recording was staged by Russian security forces after the woman’s detention.

“Every story there is absurd. Because people in civilian life were engaged in work at such a high-tech enterprise and were not involved in any ‘terrorism’ or ‘espionage’, and have nothing to do with it. And the occupiers are persecuting ordinary civilians for their pro-Ukrainian stance. And in order to show some statistics on ‘solved’ cases, they fabricate such facts,” Orlov stated.

According to the mayor, 12 residents of Enerhodar are currently known to be imprisoned by the Russians, 11 of whom are Ukrainian nuclear power plant workers.

Read also: Ukraine сalls for international action on revision of safety rules to protect nuclear power plants

By way of background, over the past three years of their occupation, ZNPP employees have noted a deterioration in the safety situation at the plant due to substandard equipment operation and a lack of qualified nuclear specialists.