Ukrainian Emergency Ministry rescuers attend an exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 17, 2022, in case of a possible nuclear incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located near the city.
Dimitar Dilkoff | AFP | Getty Images
Russia’s Ministry of Defense warned Thursday that if an accident occurs at the nuclear power plant it is occupying in southern Ukraine, radioactive material would cover Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defense forces, said the plant’s backup support systems had been damaged as a result of shelling, Reuters reported, and that several countries in Europe could be at risk if there was an accident.
The warning on Thursday came as tensions over the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant came to the fore, with the fate of the facility — Europe’s largest nuclear power plant — set to be discussed at talks between the U.N.’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thursday.
Both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the power plant.
Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday that it may shut down the nuclear plant if Ukrainian forces continued to shell the facility. Ukraine denies shelling the plant and instead blames Russia for endangering the facility, saying it is storing ammunition and military equipment there.
International warning
Ukraine and the international community have warned of the potential for a catastrophic accident at the plant and on Wednesday, Ukraine’s Emergency Ministry conducted a nuclear catastrophe exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is located in southeastern Ukraine on the Dnipro River, in case of an accident.
Zelenskyy said Wednesday night that Ukrainian diplomats and nuclear scientists are in “constant touch” with the International Atomic Energy Agency and working to get a team of inspectors into the plant which has been occupied by Russian troops since the early stages of the war.
Tensions over the plant have risen in recent weeks with Ukraine accusing Russia of using the facility as a shield and part of a “nuclear blackmail” strategy. Ukrainians still working at the facility say they are effectively hostages there, telling the BBC last week that they were being kept at gunpoint.
The game of cat and mouse over the plant continued Thursday with Russia’s Ministry of Defense claiming on Telegram that Kyiv was planning a “provocation” at the power plant during Guterres’ visit, saying that “as a result of which the Russian Federation will be blamed for creating a man-made disaster at the power plant.”
The ministry added that, “in order to prepare for the provocation,” it was deploying radiation observation posts near Zaporizhzhia and organizing training exercises for a number of military units in the region “on measures to be taken in conditions of radioactive contamination of the area.”
Russia presented no evidence for its claim and has often been
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