KYIV: Russian Forces controlling Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have killed two staff at the facility and detained and abused dozens of others, the head of Ukraine’s Nuclear Energy Agency told media on Friday.
The Zaporizhzhia plant — the largest in Europe — was captured by Russian troops in March. An uptick in fighting around it in recent weeks has raised fears of a nuclear disaster with both Moscow and Kyiv blaming the other for the escalation.
“A regime of harassment of personnel was gradually established,” following the Russian takeover, Petro Kotin said. “Two people were beaten to death. We do not know where about ten people are now, they were taken (by the Russians) and after that we have no information about their whereabouts,” Kotin said, adding about 200 people had been detained.
He described the current situation at the plant as “very difficult,” citing “torture” of staff and “beatings of personnel.
“The Russians look for pro-Ukrainian people and persecute them. People are psychologically broken,” he said in an interview with AFP reporters in his office in Kyiv.
Frequent shelling of the plant — including the town of Energodar where the facility is located — means staff have been trying to secure safe passage for family members to leave the area, Kotin said.
“Two people on the territory of the plant were wounded during shelling — a woman and a man — on separate occasions,” Kotin, clad in a military-style jacket, said.
“But people understand that the nuclear safety of the plant depends on them, so the employees return to Energodar and continue working at the facility,” he added.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) dispatched a 14-strong mission last week to the plant and released a report following the inspection.
Kotin said it described difficult psychological working conditions at the plant that ultimately amounted to “a violation of nuclear radiation safety.
“This situation must be corrected as soon as possible,” he told AFP. The IAEA in its report called for “the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the plant as it faces an “untenable” situation. –Agencies
