The Russian occupiers, who in the first weeks of the invasion seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – Zaporizhizha NPP in the city of Energodar, turned it into a military base and actively continue to strengthen their garrison there.
Source: Ukrainian defense officials
At the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, more than 500 Russian soldiers who seized the facility in March recently have deployed heavy artillery batteries and laid anti-personnel mines along the shores of the reservoir whose water cools its six reactors.
“Russian forces deployed a Smerch artillery vehicle last month in the shadow of the 5.7-gigawatt complex’s striped chimneys, adding to the grad rocket launchers, tanks and personnel carriers.”
They use the nuclear power plant as a shield because they understand that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not strike it. Therefore, the equipment and the military are relatively safe there.
According to the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Zagorodnyuk, the only chance to liberate the Zaporizhzhia NPP is to surround the occupiers there.
See also: Russia has created 19 filtration camps along the border with Ukraine
