Invaders keep setting off UXOs, mines at Zaporizhia NPP
As of March 16, Russian troops continue to detonate munitions and mines at the premises of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant they earlier seized.
This was reported by Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator, via Telegram, Ukrinform reports.
“As of the morning of March 16, there were about 50 units of enemy equipment and many Russian soldiers, lots of explosives and weapons deployed on the plant’s premises. The occupiers continue to detonate unexploded ordnance and mines discovered at the plant after the facility was shelled. The explosions can be heard far from the NPP site,” the statement reads.
It is stated that Ukrainian personnel maintain all six power-generating units of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and that the shifts are able to rotate.
Formally, the invaders do not interfere in the NPP operations but staffers are forced to coordinate all technical decisions with the commander of the invading forces.
The employees remain under strong psychological pressure from the aggressors as armed enemy soldiers conduct thorough checks upon personnel’s arrival to their workplaces.
“As a result, nuclear and radiation safety is under threat,” Energoatom said.
As Ukrinform reported, Russian troops seized the Zaporizhia NPP overnight on March 4.
On March 15, Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, said that there were between 500 and 900 invaders deployed at the Zaporizhia NPP.
Russia’s nuclear energy operator claimed “control” over the ZNPP, Europe’s largest nuclear power station.
The Anonymous hacker group, in response to the plant seizure by Russians, has defaced Rosatom’s website and launched a major leak of what is believed to be the company’s security data.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops are shelling and destroying key infrastructure, massively shelling residential areas of Ukrainian cities and towns using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.