War in Ukraine: kyiv denounces a risk of sabotage of the Zaporizhia power plant

In the afternoon of July 4, Valerii Shershen, one of the spokesmen of the Ukrainian army, announced territorial gains of two kilometers on the southern front. A few dozen kilometers from the area in question is the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. As the Ukrainian army advances towards the atomic complex, Russian forces have ordered the evacuation of civilian and military personnel from the plant and have mined the buildings, according to the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Ukraine claims that the evacuation of the plant by Russia must be completed this Wednesday, July 5, 2023. Civilian employees and Russian soldiers still present on site should join Crimea. Moscow denies the information and denounces an attempt at Ukrainian "manipulation". It is the same for the accusations of sabotage of the reactors. Again, Ukraine accuses Russia, which for its part denies.

"There is a serious threat because Russia is technically ready to cause a localized explosion in the station, which could lead to a radioactive leak," warned the Ukrainian president on Saturday at a press conference. The renewed fear of a nuclear disaster is not only worrying in Kyiv. In the city of Zaporizhia, located about fifty kilometers northeast of the plant, the population is preparing for the worst: evacuation exercises, training in the use of anti-radiation equipment.

Zaporizhia, nuclear power plant at the heart of the war since the start of the Russian invasion

Fears of sabotage of the power plant are all the more acute since the explosion of the Kakhovka dam on June 6th. This had an obvious military interest for Russia. The flooding made the banks of the Dnieper downstream impassable, considerably reducing the front area for Russian soldiers to defend. The facts clearly pointed to Moscow's responsibility in what was described as a new "war crime" by Kiev: the explosion was internal to the structure, then controlled by Russia, a Russian brigade was present at the time of the explosion and intercepted conversations suggest the premeditation of the disaster.

This disaster demonstrated that the Russian army does not hesitate to cause a major ecological catastrophe when a strategic interest is at stake. At the heart of nuclear blackmail between the two camps since the start of the war, an explosion at the Zaporizhia plant - a disaster scenario, which worries the whole of Europe - no longer seems totally impossible. In parallel with this danger of sabotage, the very stability of the plant again poses a threat. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Rafael Grossi issued a warning, citing an "extremely fragile" situation, as the plant's only emergency power line was restored on 3 July, then disconnected again the next day.