In the evening of August 18, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that Russia was preparing provocations at this facility.

Svoboda collected everything that is known about the current situation at the Zaporizhia NPP.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged accusations of preparing provocations

Ukrainian intelligence reported that on the evening of August 18, the meeting of the station's management took place in the absence of representatives of the Russian corporation "Rosatom".

They arrived in Energodar immediately after the seizure of the station by Russian troops and supervised the work of Ukrainian personnel, as well as developed the possibility of switching the nuclear power plant to work as part of the Russian energy system.

According to the intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the departure of the Rosatom employee may indicate that Russia is preparing new provocations at the Zaporozhye NPP.

In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that Ukraine plans to launch artillery strikes "from the city quarters of Nikopol" in order to create an exclusion zone with a radius of 30 kilometers, send international forces and foreign observers to the territory of the station and accuse the Russian Armed Forces of nuclear terrorism.

Nikopol, which Russia has been shelling for the past few weeks, is located 200 kilometers from Energodar, where the Zaporizhia NPP is located.

Shelling creates risks for the safe operation of energy blocks

Russia has deployed military equipment on the territory of the nuclear power plant and is shelling Ukrainian cities from there, provoking the Ukrainian army to retaliate.

But the leadership of the operational command "South" assures that the Ukrainian army is aware of the danger and does not carry out strikes in the direction of the nuclear plant.

In August, Russia fired four times at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant to blame it on the Ukrainian side.

As a result of the shelling on August 5, the emergency protection was triggered on one of the blocks, and the staff had to turn off one of the three working power blocks.

At the same time, the nitrogen-oxygen station and the combined auxiliary corps were seriously damaged.

According to "Energoatom", there are risks of hydrogen leakage, sputtering of radioactive substances and danger of fire.

After the shelling on August 6, three radiation monitoring sensors near the spent nuclear fuel storage facility failed.

On August 11, the fire station located on the territory of the NPP in case of emergencies at the station was hit by shelling.

On August 13, as a result of explosions, open distribution devices were damaged.

Ukraine demands the world to stop Russia's nuclear terrorism

After this series of shellings, Ukraine called on the world to impose additional sanctions against Russia in the nuclear energy sector and force it to withdraw its troops from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

The issue of a possible nuclear disaster was also forced to be considered by the UN Security Council, which urged both sides to refrain from any military actions around the station.

All members of the Security Council supported calls to send an urgent IAEA mission to Ukraine.

However, the participants did not come to a single conclusion about who is to blame for the shelling and who should bear responsibility for facilitating the mission.

Earlier, the Ukrainian side opposed the IAEA mission, fearing that it would legalize Russia's seizure of the Zaporizhia NPP.

Could a complete shutdown of the station lead to a disaster?

Russia has stated several times that in case of "continued shelling of the station by the Ukrainian side" it will be forced to stop the work of the last two blocks.

There are six of them in total at the ZANP, but only three were working until recently.

One was stopped by gunfire.

The State Inspection of Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine claims that the shutdown of the Zaporizhzhya NPP could cause an accident similar to the one that occurred at Fukushima-1 as a result of the 2011 earthquake.

According to Ukrainian specialists, disconnection of all energy sources can disable the cooling system and damage the active zone of the reactor, and as a result, there will be a release of radioactive substances in the surroundings.

Depending on the weather conditions, the radioactive cloud can be carried to the territory of Europe, as well as Russia and Belarus.

"It should be noted that the ZANP is located on the banks of the Kakhovsky Reservoir, which is a cascade of reservoirs of the Dnieper River.

In this way, emergency events at the ZANP may lead to radioactive pollution of the Dnieper and the Black Sea," the State Nuclear Regulation Inspection of Ukraine noted.

One of the employees of the station told Reuters on the condition of anonymity that the consequences of the accident at the Zaporizhzhya NPP could be more extensive than after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

An employee of ZANP also confirmed to journalists that there is military equipment at the station, and the Russians aim their weapons at the personnel every time they enter their workplaces.

Ukraine and the UN demand that Russia withdraw its troops from the station

On August 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Turkish President Recep Erdogan and UN Secretary General Antonia Guterres discussed the issue of safe operation of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant at their tripartite meeting.

"Nuclear security is an unconditional priority for everyone in the world, and Russia must urgently and without any conditions withdraw its troops from the territory of the ZANP, stop all provocations, all shelling.

It is unacceptable that Russia is deliberately putting all of us on the brink of a global radiation disaster," Uladzimir Zelensky said.

According to him, Ukraine and the UN have previously agreed on the parameters of a possible IAEA mission to the Zaporizhia station.

But, Zelensky said, it is about her arriving at the station "legally through the territory free from the occupiers."

"Nuclear blackmail of Russia must be a decisive argument for all those who still doubted that Russia deserves official recognition as a terrorist state and the corresponding political and legal attitude towards it," Uladzimir Zelensky emphasized.

In turn, UN Secretary General António Guterres urged to refrain from any actions that could threaten physical integrity and security.

"It is necessary to ensure the removal of equipment and personnel from the territory of the nuclear power plant.

This territory must be demilitarized," Antonio Guterres said in Lviv.

What is known about the Zaporizhia NPP

The Zaporizhia NPP is located in the Ukrainian city of Energodar.

It is the largest in Europe and the sixth largest nuclear power plant in the world.

Six nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 6 million kilowatts are operating here.

Another of its distinctive features is the system of handling spent nuclear fuel.

This is the only Ukrainian nuclear power plant that did not export it to Russia, but kept it on its territory.

In the autumn of 2019, employees of the Belarusian NPP spent three weeks studying the experience of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in the matter of storing spent nuclear fuel.

This visit was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose experts in 2000 named the Zaporizhia NPP one of the three best plants in the world.

In March, during the capture of Energodar, military operations were conducted near the Zaporizhia NPP.

One of the shells hit the training building of the station and caused a fire.

On March 9, the Russian military announced that they were in full control of the nuclear power plant.

"Rosatom" reported that it was consulting the Ukrainian staff of the Zaporizhia NPP, but denied that Russia planned to take the NPP "under full and permanent control."

The Ukrainian company "Energoatom", which controls all active nuclear plants in Ukraine, has repeatedly stated that Russia is turning the Zaporizhia NPP into a military base and using it as a shield.