KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of deliberately staging attacks that cut power to the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear power station.
Zelenskiy stated Moscow was attempting to create the risk of nuclear incidents through these actions.
He also claimed Russia was doing nothing to fix the external power cutoff at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, now in its eighth day.
The Ukrainian president said Russia was taking advantage of what he called the weak position of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General Rafael Grossi.
Ukraine’s energy ministry confirmed Russian attacks had cut power to the Chornobyl station, including a containment unit erected to minimise contamination from the 1986 disaster.
Energy officials reported strikes also cut off power to 307,000 customers in the nearby Chernihiv region.
Zelenskiy revealed more than 20 Russian drones had been deployed in the attack on the town of Slavutych that cut power to the nearby Chornobyl plant for three hours.
He wrote on Telegram that the Russians could not have been unaware that a strike on facilities in Slavutych would have such consequences for Chornobyl.
The president noted large quantities of spent fuel remained at the decommissioned plant.
He described this as a deliberate attack using more than twenty Russian-Iranian Shahed drones according to preliminary assessments.
The IAEA acknowledged the plant had experienced power fluctuations after losing its external connection but said alternative lines were used initially and power was later restored.
Russia has not yet commented on the Chornobyl power cutoff incident.
Ukraine’s energy ministry statement made no mention of any possible increased risk of radioactive release from the power cutoff.
The ministry confirmed the new safe confinement facility isolating the destroyed fourth power unit was left without power supply due to power surges.
This containment structure prevents the release of radioactive materials into the environment.
After the Chornobyl station’s fourth reactor exploded in April 1986, Soviet engineers hurriedly erected a sarcophagus around the reactor.
This was replaced by a new confinement structure in 2016 while the plant’s other three reactors were gradually taken out of service.
The plant was briefly occupied by Russian forces at the beginning of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A Russian drone pierced the confinement structure’s roof in February this year.
Zelenskiy also blamed Russia’s military for the cutoff of the external power line last week at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine.
He stated the Russians were doing absolutely nothing to fix the situation or allow Ukrainian specialists to restore the external power supply.
The president accused Russia of deliberately creating the risk of radiation incidents while exploiting the weak position of the IAEA and its director general.
He also mentioned Russia was taking advantage of the dispersion of world attention.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia was doing everything to ensure the Zaporizhzhia plant’s safety.
Peskov claimed the plant had come under repeated fire from Ukrainian forces.
Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the early weeks of the war with each side regularly accusing the other of endangering nuclear safety.
Zelenskiy had said on Tuesday that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant was critical.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi responded by saying there was no immediate danger from the power cutoff as emergency diesel generators were in operation.
He added that the external lines needed to be fixed despite the current safety measures. – Reuters
