Russians uses Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant as ground for strikes on Nikopol and equipment storage – Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia is using the territory of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) as a launching ground for strikes on Nikopol and other hromadasі A hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories., storing military equipment and ammunition on the plant’s premises.
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant“Russia is blackmailing the world with the threat of a catastrophe at the ZNPP. It uses the station’s territory as a launching ground for strikes on Nikopol and nearby hromadas, and storing military equipment and ammunition on the plant’s premises. Only the return of the plant to Ukrainian control will ensure full compliance with all safety standards and normalise the situation around the ZNPP,” Zelenskyy said in his Facebook post.
The president explained Ukraine has ensured the highest level of safety at its nuclear facilities for decades. This will continue, but it requires an end to Russia’s presence at the ZNPP.
Zelenskyy warned that Russian presence consistently poses a fundamental threat to the radiation safety of Ukraine, Europe, and the world.
On August 19, Serhii Lysak, head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, reported that during the day the Russian army struck several districts of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. In the Nikopol district, they struck the city of Nikopol, as well as Myrove, Marhanets and Pokrov hromadas.
“The aggressor deployed artillery and kamikaze drones. A projectile was dropped from a UAV. A fire broke out. Two houses and a car were destroyed. A residential building was damaged,” he wrote.
The Russians also shelled the Synelnykove and Kryvyi Rih districts with artillery and damaged infrastructure, solar panels and an outbuilding in Zelenodolsk hromada.
To provide context, the Russian Armed Forces have controlled Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the ZNPP, for more than two years:
On the evening of August 11, Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of the Nikopol District Military Administration, reported that Russians had started a fire on the territory of the ZNPP. After that incident, Zelenskyy urged the IAEA and the international community to respond to the incident. No changes to radiation levels near the ZNPP have been documented.
Yevtushenko, head of Nikopol District Military Administration, had previously reported that the ZNPP was operating as usual, and the Russians had likely set fire to a large quantity of car tyres in the cooling tower. Cooling tower number one is located about a kilometre from the plant’s power units.
