The head of the environmental protection service of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Khavshnin, has been abducted by Russian soldiers in south-eastern Ukraine, according to officials of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant company, Energoatom.
When Khavshnin was abducted, he had the responsibility of overlooking the safety of the NPP environment, which included preventing contamination as well as the prevention of radioactive pollution in and around the nuclear power plant base.
“They took him to an unknown destination,” Energoatom posted via its official account on the messaging platform Telegram. “It is still impossible to locate Kvashnin.
“The invaders destabilize the situation at the occupied power plant and resort to new methods of terror. They have started to abduct the personnel from the top management positions at Zaporizhzhia a NPP.”
Ukraine has recently accused Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant base to store lethal weapons, such as missile systems. Russian soldiers have also been accused of shelling Ukraine from the power plant base, according to top sources in Kyiv’s nuclear agency.
Russia had seized control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant base early in the war, however much of the base was still operated by Ukrainian staff.
The situation is growing to become very “intense”, according to Petro Kotin, the president of Energoatom, who stressed concern in a recently televised interview. Kotin also revealed that an estimated 500 Russian soldiers are occupying the power plant base.
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November, 13, 2024
“The occupiers bring their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they already shell the other side of the river Dnipro and the territory of Nikopol,” said Kotin.
He also emphasized the great level of dominance Russian occupiers had in the territory, “They physically control the perimeter. The occupiers’ heavy machinery and trucks with weapons and explosives remain on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.”
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