(Photo : SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
The largest nuclear facility in Europe was taken over by Russia in the early stages of the conflict. The country alleges that Ukrainian shells have struck the complex's structures as close as 10 meters as war rages in Ukraine.
According to Ukraine's nuclear watchdog, new video shows that Russia is assaulting Europe's largest nuclear facility, endangering the continent with a catastrophe "on the size of Fukushima."
The video was captured by Ukrainian workers during an attack over the weekend and provides a first glimpse inside the seized power plant in Zaporizhzhia. It also includes the sound of what sounds like mortar rounds being launched and hitting the ground.
Russia Uses Europe's Power Plant as Nuclear Shield
It takes only a split second for the mortar to fire and explode, which, according to nuclear chief Petro Kotin, establishes that Russian soldiers occupying the area are to blame for the fire. According to Kotin, the strikes are being carried out in an effort by Russian troops to damage the electrical cables that link the plant to the Ukrainian power system while also provoking a dangerous scenario that they can blame on Kyiv.
As more proof that Moscow is to blame, he said that the Russian personnel holding the factory hostage had all fled into bunkers just before the mortars started firing, leaving the Ukrainian employees they were holding hostage above ground. The Crimean peninsula was cut off from the rest of Ukraine's electrical system in 2015 when it was invaded by Russia, according to Kotin, who claims that Russian occupants intend to send power produced at the facility from Ukraine to Crimea.
Only one of the three power lines connecting the facility to the Ukrainian grid is now operational and the situation is extremely perilous since cutting the last connection would result in a power outage for the reactors, according to The Times.
This would necessitate using diesel generators, which have just enough fuel for two weeks, to power the plant's cooling system. In order to keep the reactors stable once that fuel runs out, the Russians or the Ukrainian employees they are holding hostage would need to manually pump water through cooling tanks. A meltdown might occur if you don't do it.
Zelensky Condemns Russia's "Terrorism"
The fact that Russia has converted the power plant into a military post and placed armored vehicles and explosive munitions near the reactors further complicates the issue. Per Daily Mail, any of the six reactors might catch fire, resulting in a catastrophe comparable to the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011 after being hit by a tsunami.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned "Russian terrorism" yesterday night and said that the Kremlin was "threatening the whole world" with radioactive fallout. Rafael Grossi, head of the international nuclear watchdog IAEA, said news of strikes at the facility were "very alarming" when speaking last night at a UN gathering to assess the situation in Zaporizhzhia.
Neither side is interested in a meltdown, which in the worst case could result in widespread releases of deadly radioactive material, contaminating territory stretching over hundreds of thousands of miles in whichever direction the wind blew, according to Zelensky, who also called the situation at the plant "one of the biggest crimes of the terrorist state."
Reactors at the facility are built to resist a variety of dangers, including plane crashes and natural calamities. Direct rocket and missile impacts, however, may be a different story. For fear of damaging one of the six pressurized water reactors or the extremely radioactive waste in storage, Ukraine has so far refrained from retaliating against the facility using sophisticated rocket systems supplied by the United States, as per NY Times.
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