Russia rejects US accusations of alleged use of Zaporiyia power plant as military base

Russian authorities have rejected Tuesday the accusations made by the United States about the alleged use of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant of Zaporiyia as a “military base” and stressed that “the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in no way harm nuclear security in Ukraine”.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced on Monday that Russian forces “toamroned” the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, as part of the invasion and added that “Russia is now using the plant as a military base to fire on Ukrainians knowing that they cannot and will not fire back because they could accidentally hit a reactor or a storage facility with radioactive waste.” “This takes the notion of human shielding to a whole different and horrible level,” he said.

In response, Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations has noted that it “completely rejects these accusations.” “We have repeatedly said that the actions of our Armed Forces in no way harm nuclear security in Ukraine and do not interfere with normal operations at the facilities,” it said in a message on its Telegram account.

Thus, he stressed that the plant “was taken under protection only to prevent the use of the situation by Ukrainian nationalist formations and foreign mercenaries to possibly organize a nuclear provocation with unpredictable consequences,” while stating that “there are no military formations at the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, except for the limited number of military personnel necessary to ensure its security.”

“Over the past few months, Ukrainian armed formations have committed several provocations using drones, including those delivered by NATO states, with the aim of disrupting the normal operation of the power plant, intimidating personnel, undermining security and ultimately creating a threat of nuclear catastrophe,” he has argued. “These steps are being taken by Kiev with the full support of the United States and other Western countries,” he has denounced.

The Russian Army seized in early March the facilities of the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, one of the largest in Europe, and which in the early stages of the war was already the scene of intense clashes.