Russian official rejects Ukrainian claims on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – The head of the Rosatom nuclear power company on Thursday rejected Ukraine’s claims that Russia intended to damage the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

“You have to be a complete idiot to plan an explosion at the station when you have 3,500 people directly working there every day,” Alexey Likhachev said in an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Likhachev further said many personnel from Russia are at the plant in order to help with technological and safety issues, as well as to work in the development of the city of Enerhodar, which has been under Russian control since March 2022.

He also said that four experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the power plant were shown around and they made “an absolutely accurate conclusion that the station does not bear signs of mining.”

He went on to claim that there are signs that an attack on the plant was prepared by Ukraine, based on “both the intelligence of our Armed Forces and testimonies, including those of captured saboteurs.”

Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the claim, and independent verification of claims by both Russia and Ukraine is difficult due to the ongoing war.

On July 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an evening address that Ukrainian intelligence has information on objects allegedly resembling explosives being placed on the roof of several power units of the plant "perhaps to simulate an attack."

Meanwhile, the IAEA, quoting its chief Rafael Grossi, announced on Wednesday that experts at the plant have inspected parts of the facility in recent weeks and have not found any mines or explosives, but that they are still waiting to "gain access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 following recent reports that explosives may have been placed there."

The Zaporizhzhia plant, the biggest in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world, has been under Russia's control since March last year, soon after the start of the Ukraine war. Since then, both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling it.