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Inside the Ukrainian city threatened with nuclear sabotage [1]
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Date: 2023-07
A month after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, the smell of rot lingers on the banks of the Dnipro river through Zaporizhzhia city.
The loss of the dam downstream led to a sudden four-metre drop in water levels, causing the mass death of fish, mussels and other aquatic life. The full scale of the ecological impacts is yet to be determined.
For many of Zaporizhzhia’s residents, the destruction of the dam was once unthinkable – they thought the severity of the crisis would have been too great. Now, they are anxiously waiting to see if another crisis once deemed unimaginable will become reality, as the Ukrainian government warns of an apparently impending Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).
“The scariest thought is that if they can blow up the dam, then they can surely commit a new terrorist attack at the power plant,” said Vladimir Molko, 46, a lifelong resident of Zaporizhzhia. “This is a big city, and if something were to happen, I don’t think everyone would be evacuated in time.”
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The ZNPP, located in the city of Enerhodar on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river, roughly 50 kilometres south of Zaporizhzhia, has been occupied by Russian forces since 4 March 2022. In the past two weeks Ukrainian authorities have released a series of warnings over alleged Russian plans to attack the plant.
On 20 June, the head of Ukraine military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, accused Russia of mining the plant's cooling pond, which holds the water that cools the reactors. Days later, president Volodymyr Zelenskyi said Ukrainian intelligence had uncovered Russian plans to cause a radiation leak. This announcement was followed by large-scale training exercises with emergency services in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro. On 30 June, Ukraine's military intelligence claimed Russia was evacuating its occupiers from the plant, with alleged orders to leave by 5 July.
Zelenskyi reiterated a warning on 4 July, stating that Russia had “placed objects resembling explosives on the roof of several power units of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant”. But on 5 July, Budanov told The Times that the danger of a man-made disaster at the plant was diminishing, though he refused to say why.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/zaporizhzhia-inhabitants-fear-russian-sabotage-on-nuclear-plant/
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