The Russian occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine assured on Saturday that there are no plans yet to evacuate employees from the site after announcing a partial evacuation in the area in anticipation of an offensive by Ukrainian troops.

“Currently, there is no need to evacuate plant workers and residents of the city (Energodar, where the plant is located). Keep calm,” Yuriy Chernychuk, director of the nuclear power plant appointed by the Russian authorities, said in a statement, AFP and Agerpres reported on Saturday. “You have nothing to worry about. All reactors (of the plant) are stopped,” he added.

The day before, the Moscow-appointed regional officer Yevhen Balytskyi announced the partial evacuation of 18 Russian-occupied settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, in particular in Energodar.

According to Balytskyi, these “temporary” evacuations are primarily aimed at children with their parents, the elderly and disabled, and hospital patients, who are facing, according to him, an increase in Ukrainian bombing in recent days.

The Russian authorities plan to evacuate about 70,000 people from the population centers of the region, another official of the occupation administration Andriy Kozenko, quoted by the TASS agency, said.

The Zaporizhia NPP, controlled by the Russian army since March 2022, is located on the banks of the Dnipro River, which in this area separates the two camps. She was shot several times, which made some fear a catastrophe.

Last autumn, the Russian occupation authorities announced a similar evacuation in the Kherson region, shortly before the start of the offensive, which allowed the Ukrainian army to take control of the capital of the region, which until then had been occupied by Russian troops.

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