Putin announced Ukraine’s attempts to disorganize the work of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

The Kyiv authorities are making attempts to disrupt the work at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, declared Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the morning drone attack on Moscow.

“Citizens of Ukraine <...> nevertheless, they should know what the current leadership of this country is pushing for, and simply understand that there are still other threats associated, for example, with attempts to disrupt work at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant or use some kind of “dirty” devices of this kind related to the nuclear industry. We have already talked about this more than once: we know what is on their minds,” the president said.

Today, May 30, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi will report UN Security Council on the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP. He will present “concrete ideas” for strengthening nuclear and nuclear security at the station. Mikhail Ulyanov, permanent representative of Russia to international organizations in Vienna, announced this a day earlier.

Grossi earlier declaredthat the disconnection of the Zaporizhzhya NPP from external power supply on May 22 demonstrated the extreme vulnerability of the situation with nuclear safety. The head of the IAEA called the situation around the station “playing with fire.”

He added that he is negotiating with all parties to protect the ZNPP in order to avoid a real threat of a nuclear accident at the facility. He emphasized that when ZNPP is disconnected from the 750 kW line, the plant becomes entirely dependent on its diesel generators, since the previously damaged 330 kW backup power line has not yet been repaired. The power outage on May 22 was the seventh in a row, Grossi added.

ZNPP has been under Russian control since the end of February 2022. Since then, the Russian side has reported that the plant and the city of Energodar, where it is located, are subject to regular shelling from Ukraine. In early September last year, an IAEA mission arrived at ZNPP. The organization called for an end to the attacks on the station and the establishment of a safe zone around it.