Russian claim that Ukraine plans ‘provocation’ at nuclear plant denied

RUSSIA said yesterday it could shut down Europe’s largest nuclear power station after it came under shelling at the front lines in Ukraine, a move Kyiv said would increase the risk of a nuclear catastrophe there.

Moscow also rejected international calls for a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which it seized early in the war and which is still operated by Ukrainian engineers under Russian occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy, who discussed the situation at the plant with visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Lviv, called on the UN to ensure that it was demilitarised and protected.

The power station sits on the Russian-controlled south bank of a huge reservoir; Ukrainian forces hold the north bank. Recent days have seen several incidents of shelling at the plant, which both side blame on each other.

Ukraine also accuses Russia of using the plant as a shield for its forces to launch strikes across the reservoir on Ukrainian-held cities, which Moscow denies.

Foreign countries and the UN have called on Moscow to allow in international inspectors. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson said yesterday calls for a demilitarised zone around the plant were “unacceptable”. The defence ministry said Moscow could shut the plant down if it came under further attack. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of planning to shut the plant to sever it from Ukraine’s power grid and switch it over to Russia’s -effectively stealing its output.

Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom said shutting down the plant would increase the risk of “a radiation disaster at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe”.

Disconnecting the complex’s generators from Ukraine’s power system would prevent them being used to keep nuclear fuel cool, in the event of a power outage at the plant, it said.

Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence forces, said the plant’s back-up support systems had been damaged as a result of shelling.

The Russian defence ministry accused Ukraine and what it called its “US handlers” of trying to stage a “minor accident” at the plant in southern Ukraine to blame Russia.

Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of planning some form of incident at the nuclear plant as a “provocation” to take place during Guterres’ visit. A Ukrainian official dismissed the assertion by Moscow.