War in Ukraine. The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has become a “Russian military base”, according to a Ukrainian official.

After a year of occupation, the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia no longer produces electricity and serves only as a military base for Russian troops, according to the exiled mayor of the city of Energodar, where the giant complex is located. The Russian army occupied this nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on March 4, 2022, nine days after launching its invasion.

“During this year of occupation, they turned Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a military baseAFP 37-year-old mayor Dmitry Orlov, according to whom the Russians know.that the Ukrainian army will not shootsite to avoid an incident. The Russians use the plant as a “a nuclear shield to house military equipment, ammunition and personnel– he emphasizes.

According to him, currently there are at least 1,000 Russian soldiers in the territory of the nuclear power plant and in Energodar, whose population, according to him, has decreased from 53,000 to “about 15,000“In one year.

Lack of personnel

“Most of the occupation forces are in the factory because they feel safe there“Supports the mayor, who has been living since April 2022 in Zaporizhia, the regional capital 120 kilometers from Energodar, but says he maintains regular contact with residents who remain there. The number of workers at the plant has also dropped from 11,000 before the attack to 6,500, Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom told AFP.

Thousands of specialists left for the territories controlled by Kiev, and about 2,600 of those who remained agreed to “cooperate with the aggressorIn Russian, Energoatom reports. “There is a real staffing issue that has implications for security“Dmytro Orlov speaks volumes, according to whom the employees are from below”.pressure“The Russians, in particular, were forced to work in reduced numbers and without holidays.

The plant, which previously produced 20% of Ukraine’s electricity, continued to operate in the first months of the invasion, despite periods of bombing, until it was shut down in September. Since then, none of the Soviet-era VVER-1000 reactors have produced power, but the plant is connected to Ukraine’s energy system and consumes the electricity it produces for its own needs. “The occupiers tried for several months to connect it to the Russian power system, but failed– says the mayor.

According to the press service of Energoatom, “The Russians can’t even restart the reactor because the high voltage lines are damaged“.

There is no military solution

If Moscow, according to Energoatom, sent nuclear specialists to the nuclear power plant, “their skills are not sufficient to organize a real job“. And closing the factory also means “gradual decay of all its systems and equipment“, warns the Ukrainian nuclear operator. The group is also concerned about “the risk of a nuclear incidentin the event of a breakdown of the last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power system.

In a note published on Wednesday, the American think tank Center for the Study of War estimated that Moscow could “is an attempt to deter a possible Ukrainian counterattack“South of the Earth”By activating threats against the Zaporizhia power plant“.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sent observers to the plant in September and is trying to negotiate its demilitarization, but the process appears to be making no progress. IAEA Director Raffaele Grossi announced on Twitter Thursday that a new rotation of experts had been completed, accompanying his message with a video showing observers wearing helmets and bulletproof vests walking across a bridge that was destroyed to reach the power plant.

“The fact that they are there is already a plus“Says Dmytro Orlov, who says that he has high hopes for the IAEA negotiations with Moscow.For obvious reasons, no one will militarily demilitarize and stop the seizure of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.“.

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