Ivan Nechaev, deputy director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, has warned of catastrophic consequences from Kiev’s shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP).
“Over the past few days, Ukrainian forces have shelled the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant several times, which is an act of nuclear terrorism. Such actions by the Kiev regime can lead to a catastrophe on a scale much greater than the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant [in April 1986]”, Nechaev told reporters on Thursday.
He recalled that the UN Security Council would hold a gathering later on Thursday to deal with the issue of Kiev shelling the Zaporozhye NPP. According to the Russian diplomat, Moscow hopes that the world community and relevant international structures will show due attention to the "catastrophic" situation around the facility.
“We stand for organizing a mission by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Zaporozhye NPP, which was disrupted in June due to a decision by the Security Department of the UN Secretariat,” Nechaev said.
Separately, Nechaev said that apart from its aid to Ukraine, Washington provides Kiev with intelligence information using data from military, civilian and private satellites, something that he added “leads to the militarization of outer space.”
The statement comes after Volodymyr Rogov, a member of the main council of the regional administration, said earlier on Thursday that a local air defense system had repelled the Ukrainian troops’ missile and drone attacks on the Zaporozhye NPP and the city of Energodar, where the facility is situated.
This followed Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying in a statement earlier this week that “the Russian side has long been calling on the international community to condemn the incessant strikes which the Kiev regime has been inflicting on the Zaporozhye NPP, including attacks using increasingly destructive weapons systems.”
“The station came under fire again on August 5-6, and a major disaster was averted thanks only to the skillful and prompt actions of the NPP's employees, as well as the Russian forces providing comprehensive protection to the facility,” Zakharova added.
She spoke after the authorities in Energodar reported that Ukrainian forces had launched an attack on the facility using an Uragan multiple launch rocket system, with shrapnel falling just 400 meters from the plant’s reactors.
Last week, separate attacks caused a fire to break out at the facility, with two power lines necessary for the operation of reactors cut off and over 10,000 residents of the region left without power and water supplies.
The Zaporozhye NPP, which is the largest nuclear power generation facility in Europe, contains six VVER-1000 pressurized light water reactors, which put out a total of 5,700 MWe of power.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine following a request from the Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev’s provocations.