Ukraine’s Energoatom state nuclear company said on Friday Russian forces planned to switch off the functioning power blocks at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and to disconnect them from the Ukrainian power grid.
In a statement, Energoatom said it believed that Russia, which controls the power plant in southern Ukraine, was preparing to conduct a “large-scale provocation” there.
Moscow itself accused Kyiv of preparing a “provocation” at the site on Thursday.
Separately on Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia’s military presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is a guarantee against what he called a “Chernobyl scenario,” referring to the 1986 nuclear catastrophe.
Yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivan Nechaev said that a UN proposal to demilitarize the area around the nuclear plant was “unacceptable.”
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, was occupied by Russia in March.
It remains near the frontline, and has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the facility.
