MoD: Ukraine Shells Zaporozhye NPP Again to Create Threat of Nuclear Disaster

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kiev has shelled the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) again to create a threat of a nuclear disaster, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

"The Kiev regime continues provocations in order to create a threat of a technogenic nuclear catastrophe at the ZNPP. Over the past day, two incidents of shelling of the NPP's territory by artillery units of the Ukrainian armed forces were recorded," the ministry told reporters.

The ministry clarified that a total of nine shells were fired, three of which fell in the area of a special building of the ZNPP, which stores new TVEL nuclear fuel and solid radioactive waste. Consequently, pipelines were damaged by shell fragments.

As a result of the second strike, one shell fell next to the ZNPP's sixth power unit, and five others landed opposite the sixth block pumping station, which provides cooling of the reactor.

"The shelling by the Ukrainian artillery of the NPP was carried out from the area of ​the village of Marivka, Dnipropetrovsk region. During the counter-battery struggle, the units of the Ukrainian armed forces that fired at the NPP were suppressed by retaliatory fire," the ministry added.

Zaporozhye NPP. File photo

© Sputnik / Konstantin MIkhalchevsky

/

Go to the mediabank

The Zaporozhye NPP, which is the largest nuclear power generation facility in Europe, contains six VVER-1000 pressurized light water reactors, which put out a total of 5,700 MWe of power.

Over the past days, Ukrainian forces repeatedly targeted the facility in a bid to stage a major disaster and pin the blame on Russia.