April 9, 2024 (EIRNS)—The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant came under attack today for the third day in a row. According to plant officials, in statements cited by TASS, a drone hit the roof of the training center—"where the world’s only full-scale reactor hall simulator is located”—but caused no damage. Yesterday a kamikaze drone was shot down over the plant, falling on the roof of reactor unit number six, also apparently causing little damage. “Despite all calls on the Ukrainian military to stop terrorist acts, bombardments of the NPP and its infrastructure continue,” Yevgeniya Yashina, the plant’s communications director, told TASS yesterday. “This can affect the safe operation of the facility.” These followed an attack on April 7 during which drones hit the cargo port and canteen facilities on the plant’s grounds.
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said that Moscow will raise the issue of the Ukrainian military’s attack on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant at one of the forthcoming meetings of the UN Security Council on Ukraine. “We are calling on the international community to condemn these irresponsible and extremely dangerous actions,” Nebenzia added, stressing that Western countries, supplying Kyiv with weapons and ammunition, “should be held responsible for these reckless actions of the Ukrainian authorities.”
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called the April 7 strikes “a major escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing” the plant, according to an IAEA statement. “Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately.” He stressed, “Attacking a nuclear power plant is an absolute no go.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned in reply that Moscow expects “a public and exhaustively truthful response. Anyone who contributes to masking the role of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his entourage, the Ukrainian army’s command and Ukrainian special services in the attacks on the Russian nuclear facility acts as their accomplices. The blame for the strikes on the ZNPP, as well as for their possible consequences, also falls squarely on the leadership of those states which supply the Kyiv regime with weapons and intelligence, provide it with financial resources, train Ukrainian troops and provide information ‘support’ for Ukrainian crimes.”
