Russia Threatens To SHUT IT OFF – Developing Now
(UnitedVoice.com) – Europe’s largest nuclear power facility is at the center of a new drama in the war in Ukraine. Russian forces captured the massive plant, which has six reactors, early in the war, but it’s still running. Now both sides are accusing each other of risking a disaster.
On August 18, Ukrainian military intelligence told NBC News they learned that commanders had told Russian supervisors at the Zaporizhzhia power plant not to come to work the next day. Now Ukraine fears Kremlin-based forces are planning “provocations” around the facility. Russia has regularly accused the defenders of shelling the facility, while the defenders insist the occupiers are staging the attacks for propaganda reasons.
Russia has told Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant workers to stay home on Friday amid shelling allegations, says Ukrainian military intelligence https://t.co/LcPUbGwiwu
— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) August 18, 2022
The Zaporizhzhia plant has six Russian-built VVER-1000 reactors and produces a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity. From February 28 to March 4, it suffered light damage as enemy forces attacked the nearby city of Enerhodar; by March 7, both the city and the power facility were under Russian control. Russia now insists that Zaporizhzhia belongs to its own nuclear energy agency, Rosatom. The original Ukrainian staff still runs the facility, but now Rosatom supervisors give the orders.
The potential for a major incident at Zaporizhzhia terrifies Ukrainians, who have already run nuclear emergency drills as a precaution. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for Turkey or the UN to intervene and take control of the area to prevent a disaster that could dwarf the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.
Now, leaked video shows Russian military vehicles inside the plant. Are Putin’s forces illegally using the reactors to shield them from attack, or are they planning to launch a “provocation,” as Ukraine claims?
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