Russians engage unskilled personnel to work at ZNPP – Energoatom
The Russian occupiers allow specialists from the Russian Federation to work at the Zaporizhzhia NPP who do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to operate the plant
This was reported by Energoatom.
It is noted that the qualified Ukrainian staff of the ZNPP, which has been ensuring the operation of the plant for years, continues to be subjected to pressure, intimidation and blackmail by the occupiers.
“At the same time, the traitors appoint young Russians to senior operational positions that require a license,” Energoatom said.
According to them, an employee of the Balakovo NPP in Russia, who has only 7 months of experience, was appointed shift supervisor of one of the power units. According to Energoatom, this position requires much more experience, as it involves operational management of the reactor.
“So even with these actions, the occupiers are once again endangering the world. Due to the incompetence and inexperience of the Russian personnel brought in, the threat to the safe operation of Zaporizhzhya NPP is only growing,” the company said.
The situation at ZNPP
Russians occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP in late February 2022. Since then, there has been a constant presence of personnel and military equipment there, which the invaders keep in the engine rooms and from time to time bring to positions to shell the territories of the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovs’k region, located on the other side of the Kakhovka reservoir.
An IAEA monitoring mission is working at the plant to ensure that the plant is not used as a military base, that the plant is not attacked or fired upon, and that external power supplies are not interrupted. However, blackouts at NPPs occur constantly. Since last year, the occupiers have started bringing explosives to ZNPP.
It became known in May 2023 that Russians had placed explosives in the turbine room of the fourth power unit of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP. The occupiers also almost completely destroyed the emergency preparedness and response system at the nuclear power plant.
On June 22, IAEA Director General Grossi said after visiting ZNPP that the situation there was extremely unstable. On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that intelligence had received information that Russia was considering a scenario of a terrorist attack on the temporarily occupied ZNPP that would cause a radiation release.
Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kirill Budanov says Russia has completed preparations for a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
Large-scale exercises were held in four regions of Ukraine in case of a terrorist attack on the ZNPP.
On June 30, the GUR reported that the occupiers were gradually leaving ZNPP, and that Ukrainian employees who had signed a contract with Rosatom also received evacuation recommendations. In addition, the plant’s staff received an order to blame Ukraine in any emergency situation.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine officially reported that the occupiers were preparing a provocation at Z NPP: Russians placed suspicious devices similar to explosives on the roofs of power units 3 and 4. However, the IAEA mission stated that it had not recorded any signs of mining.
At the same time, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, said on July 6 that the threat of a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia NPP was decreasing.
However, the president of NNEGC Energoatom later said that about 700 Russians are currently at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The plant is mined, and machine gun nests are placed on the roofs of the power units.
