Russian forces seized control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, in early March, soon after the invasion of Ukraine began. Under increasing pressure from long-range Ukrainian strikes, troops last month ordered plant staff to surrender access to the engine rooms of three of its reactors in order to store heavy weaponry. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, said the Russian munitions were stored near highly flammable materials and would cause a Chernobyl-scale nuclear disaster if detonated. Military sources said the Russian occupiers had made the engine rooms almost completely inaccessible to emergency services in the event of another fire at the site. Moscow also used the Zaporizhzhia plant to hit Ukrainian-held positions on the west bank of the Dnipro River as Kiev forces prepare to launch a major counter-offensive. Ukraine has no choice but to largely accept the one-way fire, knowing that its forces cannot fight back because they could accidentally hit a nuclear reactor. But on Wednesday, Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Russian puppet administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, accused Ukraine of using Western-supplied weapons to strike the plant. “We are ready to show how the Russian army guards the plant and how Ukraine, which receives weapons from the West, uses these weapons, including drones, to attack the nuclear plant,” Mr Balitsky said in response to requests for inspection. the installation.
