The situation at Europe's largest nuclear power plant has reached the “point of no return”. Warning for Eastern European countries
The situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine, under the control of Russian forces since the beginning of the war, is reaching the “point of no return” due to the intensification of Ukrainian attacks in the area, the head of the Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom said on Monday, according to Reuters.
Management installed by Moscow at the nuclear power plant, which has six reactors and is Europe's largest, says Ukrainian forces have attacked the facility for the third day in a row.
“We are getting closer and closer to the point of no return, and the whole of Europe must now make efforts to defuse the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant,” said Alexei Likhachev, the head of Rosatom, quoted by Russian media.
“It's like playing with fire and, first of all, it's dangerous for Eastern European countries,” he warned.
Likhachev also said that there are about 2,600 tons of nuclear fuel in the plant. The plant does not produce electricity, but must continue to operate to keep the nuclear fuel at a low temperature.
The management of the plant, in a statement published on Telegram, stated that the latest drone attack did not cause injuries or damage to the plant's facilities, which continued to operate normally.
According to the statement, permanent observers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, were shown the damage caused by the incident on Sunday, when plant management claimed that a transport workshop was hit by Ukrainian shells.
The Zaporizhia plant was occupied by Russian forces in the first weeks after the Russian military invaded Ukraine in 2022. Each side regularly accused the other of carrying out military activities likely to compromise nuclear safety.
