Russian troops trying to mine territory surrounding Enerhodar

Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov reported the information.

"The occupying Russian troops are trying to mine everything around Enerhodar. If until now only the coastline and the territory around the perimeter of the nuclear power plant were mined, now they have already started mining the surrounding villages, forest belts, and plantations," the mayor said.

Russian forces probably fear the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Orlov suggests, because they do not keep military equipment in the city, but deploy it in nearby villages and at the nuclear power plant.

"The occupying Russian forces, let's put it like this, have dug in at the NPP and are using the technological facilities to protect themselves, because they realize that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will never attack the largest plant in Europe. They are actually spending the day and night there, setting up ammunition depots. For about the last two weeks, local residents have been noticing that the occupiers are intensifying mining and pressure at checkpoints. It is no longer possible to leave the city unless you have a piece of paper they call a Russian passport," the mayor emphasizes. 

The pressure on civilians in the temporarily occupied city is increasing.

"This is especially true for those who did not cooperate, did not get a passport, did not sign a contract with a fake company from Rosatom. And almost everyone who encounters the occupiers on the street is at risk of ending up in torture chambers. Despite all this, not only the residents of Enerhodar, but also the occupiers themselves realize that Enerhodar will be recaptured. The citizens of Enerhodar are waiting for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The occupiers and defectors are also waiting. And they are getting more and more nervous," Orlov added.

• Almost 600 Ukrainian soldiers tried to recapture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in October 2022, but the operation failed. 

• Earlier, Energoatom said that the most likely scenario for the recapture of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP is its encirclement by Ukrainian troops.

• During his last visit to ZNPP, IAEA Director General Grossi said that the plant could not be protected.

• Commenting on the situation around the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP, Mykhailo Podolyak, Advisor to the Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, called the IAEA ineffective and incompetent.

• In the temporarily occupied Enerhodar, Russian troops are kidnapping Zaporizhzhia NPP employees for "preventive conversations" in torture chambers to force them to cooperate.