Russia allegedly instructed Zaporizhia NPP employees not to report to work on Friday, Ukrainian military intelligence exclusively confirmed to NBC News.
The announcement comes amid accusations and speculation from Russia and Ukraine that the incident at the factory is planned for Friday.
On Thursday, Russia threatened to close the station and warned that there is a risk of man-made disaster due to continued bombing of Ukraine.
On the other hand, it is a completely different story in Ukraine, according to Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Challenges of a large scale” at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe
“There is new information, they arrived about half an hour ago, that there is an order for tomorrow, August 19, that most of the staff will not go to work,” Yusov told NBC News, according to news.ro. “This is what the Russians told their people, primarily Rosatom employees,” he added, referring to Rosatom.
A Ukrainian official said this could be evidence that Russia is preparing “large-scale challenges” to the nuclear power plant on Friday.
“We do not rule out the possibility of massive Russian provocations on the territory of Zaporozhye tomorrow (not Friday). This is confirmed by their propaganda, information from our sources, and the behavior of the Russians at the installation,” he added.
Russia refused to confirm or deny the presence of Rosatom agency employees in Zaporizhzhia. On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine and so-called “US intermediaries” of trying to organize a “minor accident” at a factory in southern Ukraine on Friday to blame Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also said that the “provocation” was timed to the visit of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to Ukraine, and that it could be related to a radiation leak.
The head of the UN: “Any failure at the plant would be suicide”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by the fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and warned that “any damage to the plant would be suicide,” again calling for the “demilitarization” of the occupied nuclear power plant. by the Russian army, the BBC reports.
He stated this at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and President of Turkey Recep Erdogan.
“An agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporozhye as a purely civilian infrastructure and ensure the security of the region,” Guterres said.
For his part, Zelenskyi said he had agreed on the parameters of a possible International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to Zaporizhzhia, again warning that Russia should immediately withdraw its troops and stop shelling the perimeter of the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
The President of Turkey is concerned about the danger of a “new Chernobyl”
At the end of the meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country supports Ukraine and expressed concern about the danger of a “new Chernobyl”:
- “We have expressed our concern about the ongoing hostilities around the Zaporizhzhia NPP. We don’t want to experience a new Chernobyl.”
Kyiv accuses Moscow, whose forces seized the nuclear plant in March, of using it as a shield to bomb Ukrainian targets, while Russia says Ukraine is beginning a bombing campaign around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The recent strikes on the station, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster, led to a meeting of the UN Security Council last week, with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi pleading for a mission to be sent to the site “as soon as possible”. for site inspection.
Read also:
- How radioactive material from the Zaporizhzhya NPP would spread across Europe in the event of an accident / Ukrainians made a simulation – VIDEO
- What do we know about the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and what is the greatest danger for the Zaporizhia reactors
- Can Zaporizhia be the Fukushima of Europe? “Now a nuclear disaster has been averted by a miracle, but miracles don’t last forever”
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- Friday’s events regarding the war in Ukraine are broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro
Source: Hot News RU
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