Ukrainian emergency services rehearse action plan in case of terrorist attack on ZNPP

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Energy.

The exercises are chaired by Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and involve the participation of relevant central, regional and local services.

The events are taking place in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. People are asked not to panic.

"The main task of the exercise is to work out protocols for joint actions of all relevant services to respond quickly and minimise the consequences in the event of a possible terrorist attack at ZNPP," Halushchenko explained.

The threat of a terrorist attack and the situation at Zaporizhzhia NPP

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. 

Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kirill Budanov said that Russia had completed preparations for a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Energoatom reported that as of 27 June, the situation at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was under control, with the water level in the cooling pond stable.

Also, Askad Ashurbekov, a deputy of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council, told Espreso that the Zaporizhzhia regional authorities are taking coordination measures and developing models for the potential evacuation of people due to the threat of a Russian terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

At the same time, the Nikopol Regional State Administration denied the fake that the authorities had prepared a decree on "irrevocable evacuation" from Nikopol. The relevant "document" was circulated online.