Russia Takes Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant as a Stronghold to Attack Ukraine

According to report on July 16th, a Ukrainian nuclear agency official said a few days ago that the Russian forces were using the largest nuclear power plant in Europe it has occupied as a military base to store weapons and launch attacks on Ukraine’s territory.

 It is known that Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and is located along the Dnieper River in the southeast of Ukraine.

 Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the plant was occupied by Russian forces, but the operation of the nuclear power plant remained in the hands of Ukrainian staffs.

 Pedro Kotin, the president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom, said that as many as 500 Russian soldiers were in control of the nuclear power plant, and the situation was extremely tense. The Russian army also used the nuclear power plant as a weapons warehouse to store weapons, including missile systems, and kept heavy machinery and passenger cars with weapons and explosives around the nuclear power plant. In addition, the Russian army shelled the other side of the Dnieper River and the city of Nikopol from the nuclear power plant.

 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has previously said it needed to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for necessary maintenance work. In this regard, Kotin criticized that the IAEA was playing a political game in an attempt to strike a balance between Russia and Ukraine. Energoatom stressed that the visit of the IAEA to the nuclear power plant would only legitimize the occupation of terrorists.