The Russian National Guard now has full control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, according to state media in Russia.
Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, claims that Russian forces are holding employees of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant hostage.
– Russian occupying forces torture the operational staff at Zaporizhia. The employees are physically and mentally exhausted, he claims on his Facebook profile.
– Disaster
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The Minister of Energy claims that they have been held hostage for several days, and have been forced to make recordings that can be used as Russian propaganda.
In addition to the employees at the power plant, there will also be around 500 Russian soldiers, according to Halushchenko.
– The destruction of a nuclear power plant will be a disaster for the whole of Europe. It is only Russia’s responsibility, he writes.
Claiming they found weapons
The Russian news agency RIA has interviewed a soldier outside the Zaporizhia power plant. He claims that the Russians found large quantities of weapons when they took control of the area.
In a statement on Wednesday night, Russian authorities stressed that they had full control over the situation.
– During the fighting, firearms were used. While they were retreating, the sabotage groups set fire to the building that made up the fitness center. The fire was extinguished by the fire brigade. During the fighting and while the fire was extinguished, there were no civilians at the facility, Russian authorities write in a statement to RIA.
– The situation in Chernobyl is deteriorating
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) writes in a press release on Tuesday night that they are following the situation at all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants closely.
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They are particularly concerned about the situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukrainian authorities have previously stated that the Russian forces in control of the area do not allow employees to leave the area, and that it is thus the same people who have been working at the power plant since the invasion began.
– I am very concerned about the difficult and stressful situation the employees of the Chernobyl power plant are in, and the potential risk this poses to nuclear safety. I ask the forces that now have control over the power plant to facilitate safe rotation of the employees, writes director Rafael Mariano Grossi of the IAEA in the press release.
