Russian invaders gradually leave ZNPP, personnel ordered to blame Ukraine in case of emergency situation – Ukraine’s Intelligence

This information is reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence.

"The occupiers are reducing their presence on the territory of ZNPP," the intelligence statement reads.

Among the first to leave the station were three employees of Rosatom who were overseeing the actions of the Russians at the energy facility. According to intelligence data, the number of Russian patrols on the station's territory and in Enerhodar has also decreased.

Ukrainian personnel who have signed contracts with Rosatom have also received a recommendation to evacuate by July 5th. It is noted that the preferred destination for evacuation is temporarily occupied Crimea.

As of today, it is known that the head of the legal department, Mantsurova, the chief inspector of the State Department, and the deputy head of the station for supply, Hubareva, have left for the peninsula.

"The remaining personnel at the station have been instructed to 'blame Ukraine in any emergency situation'," the statement concludes.

Situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Russians occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP in late February 2022. Since then, there has been a constant presence of personnel and military equipment, which the invaders 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.

It became known in May 2023 that the Russians had placed explosives in the turbine room of the  ZNPP’s fourth power unit. Additionally, the invaders 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.