Ukraine says Russia plans to simulate an accident at a nuclear power plant
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Friday that Russia plans to simulate a major accident at a nuclear power plant controlled by pro-Moscow forces in an effort to thwart a long-planned Ukrainian counterattack to retake Russian-occupied territory.
The Zaporizhia plant, located in the Russian-occupied region of southern Ukraine, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. The area has repeatedly been bombed, which both sides blame each other for.
The Defense Ministry’s intelligence department said Russian forces would soon bomb the facility and then announce a radioactive leak. This would force the international authorities to conduct an investigation, during which all hostilities would cease.
The administration’s statement, posted on the Telegram app, did not provide any evidence. He added that Russia had held up the planned rotation of IAEA inspectors at the station.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which frequently posts updates on the plant, did not mention any outages.
Witnesses said last week that Russian military forces had reinforced their defensive positions in and around the station before the counterattack.
And in October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the West to warn Russia against blowing up a dam that would flood a large area. The dam was not destroyed.
