EU in OSCE calls on Russia to stop threatening nuclear facilities in Ukraine

This is noted in the statement of the European Union, delivered during the meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation in the capital of Austria on Wednesday.

"Russia must also immediately cease actions endangering the safety and security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine. The European Union fully supports the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in this respect," the statement said.

The EU also condemned "Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and its announced deployment of nuclear weapons to Belarus."

"We call on the Belarusian authorities to put an immediate end to their support of Russia’s war," the statement said.

The European Union also reiterated its call to Russia "to stop its war of aggression and to immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its troops and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders."

According to Ukrinform, on June 22, 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that Russia has plans to carry out a terrorist attack on the occupied Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

During an interview with Spanish journalists on July 1, Zelenskyy expressed that the situation at the Zaporizhia NPP is extremely challenging as it is rigged with explosives, and Russian militants are present there.

Furthermore, Nataliya Kostenko, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to International Organizations in Vienna, stated that the losses suffered by the Ukrainian Defense Forces are eight times smaller than those of the Russian occupation army.

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP

Russian forces occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP in late February 2022. Since then, there has been a constant presence of personnel and military equipment, which the invading Russian troops store in machine rooms and occasionally deploy to positions for shelling the territories of the Nikopol district in the Dnipropetrovsk region, located on the other side of the Kakhovka Reservoir.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a monitoring mission at the station, which is supposed to ensure that the nuclear power plant is not used as a military base, that it is not attacked, and that no fire is initiated from the NPP. Power outages at the nuclear power plant occur regularly though. Occupiers began importing explosives to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant last year.

In May 2023 information emerged that the Russian forces had placed explosives in the turbine room of the  ZNPP’s fourth power unit. Additionally, the invading Russian forces have nearly completely destroyed the emergency readiness and response system at the nuclear power plant.

On June 22, the Director-General of the IAEA, after visiting ZNPP Grossi, stated that the situation at the plant is extremely unstable. On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that intelligence had received information that Russia was considering a scenario for a terrorist act at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which would cause a radiation release. 

The Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, stated that Russia has completed preparations for a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

On June 29, large-scale exercises were held in four regions of Ukraine to prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the ZNPP.

On June 30, the Main Intelligence Directorate reported that the occupying Russian forces were gradually leaving the ZNPP, and that Ukrainian employees who had signed a contract with Rosatom also received evacuation recommendations. In addition, the plant's staff received an order to blame Ukraine in any emergency situation.

In his turn, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive and the process of Ukraine regaining control over ZNPP would continue even despite Russian nuclear blackmail.

On July 2, the mayor of the temporarily occupied Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, said that some Rosatom employees and collaborators who had signed a contract with the company, had left ZNPP.

On the night of July 4, Zaporizhzhia NPP lost power from the main power transmission line, the station was connected to the only available backup line.

On July 4, the Ukrainian Armed Forces officially reported that Russian troops were preparing a provocation at ZNPP: Russians placed suspicious devices similar to explosives on the roof of power units 3 and 4.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and warned him that Russia was preparing provocations at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.