Serious threat remains at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, says Ukraine's President Zelenskyy

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that a “serious threat” existed at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and that Russia was “technically ready” to cause a localised explosion there.

Zelenskyy attributed his knowledge to Ukrainian intelligence.

“There is a serious threat because Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station, which could lead to a (radiation) release,” Zelenskyy told a news conference alongside visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

He provided no additional information. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russian forces mined the factory.

Zelenskyy has asked for more international attention to be paid to the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest civil nuclear facility, and has advocated for sanctions on Russia’s state nuclear enterprise Rosatom.

Zelenskyy later convened a conference of Ukraine’s highest military leadership and nuclear power authorities in Rivne, one of the country’s five nuclear power facilities, in the country’s northwest.

“The key issues discussed were the security of our northern regions and our measures to strengthen them,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, standing in front of the Rivne plant.

Zelenkyy’s trip to Rivne was a rare journey for the Ukraine leader to an area relatively far from the fighting. But it is near the border with Belarus, where Russia’s Wagner mercenaries have a deal to go after last week’s aborted uprising. Their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was offered the option of resettling in Belarus, on Ukraine’s northern border.

Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power authority, said on Friday it had conducted two days of exercises simulating the effects of an attack on the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, issued a statement describing the Ukrainian allegations as “simply preposterous”. Russia has dismissed any suggestion it plans to attack or sabotage the Zaporizhzhia plant. Each side accuses the other of shelling near the facility.

Sanchez said his visit to the Ukrainian capital was meant to underscore his support for Ukraine as Spain kicks off the six-month rotating EU presidency. Spain would provide an additional 55 million euro ($60 million) financial package for Ukraine to help the economy and small businesses, he said.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, located near the city of Enerhodar in southern Ukraine, has been occupied by Russia since shortly after Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, suffered the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986 when clouds of radioactive material spread across much of Europe after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

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