Russia declares ownership of Zaporizhzhia NPP
Russia has tried to replace the employees of
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear
power plant with its own engineers in order to gain
total control of the facility, the head of Ukraine’s state-owned Energoatom
nuclear energy company, Peter Kotin, told the BBC on March 12.
After invading Russian forces established a perimeter around the power plant, they announced that the facility was now the property of Russia’s Rosatom, said Kotin.
According to him, ten Rosatom officials, including two senior engineers, entered the NPP to seize control of its operation.
“There are around 500 Russian soldiers with assault rifles on the (power plant’s) grounds; … our personnel are under tremendous psychological duress,” Kotin added.
Earlier, Ukrainian intelligence warned that Russia was developing two nuclear false flag operations, looking to pin the blame for their consequences on Ukraine.
The Russian military seized the plant on March 4, following shelling that damaged portions of the plant’s auxiliary infrastructure.
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