Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday warned of a Russian terrorist attack on the Enerhodar nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region. The power plant has been under Russian control since the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and it was previously claimed that the Russian military mined the site.
"Our intelligence has received information that Russia is examining the possibility of an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. We share intelligence information on the subject with the whole world - Europe, the United States, India, China, Brazil, the Arab world, Africa, international organizations, everyone," Zelensky said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, photo: AP
The Ukrainian president referred to the Russian attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam and claimed that his country had warned about this possibility. In the autumn, Ukraine asked the UN to send a team of inspectors to the dam, but the organization took no such initiative. "We warned of damage to the Nova Kakhovka Dam. This time it must not happen as with Kakhovka: the world can and must act first," Zelensky added. ".
Under power, Enerhodar is the largest of its kind in Europe, and a strike on one of the reactors there could cause a nuclear disaster worse than the one caused by the Chernobyl power plant accident in 1986. Earlier this week, Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, warned of a Russian plan to hit and blow up part of the station. The Russian army controls the territory of the station and it has been proven in the past that it has stored weapons and ammunition on its territory.
Damage to the bridge between Crimea and Kherson Oblast
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military managed this morning to hit the Chonhar Bridge, a major vehicle crossing connecting Crimea and Kherson Oblast. According to military bloggers, the bombed bridge is responsible for 70 of the Russian military traffic between Crimea and the rest of Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.
Moscow's Kherson regional governor, Vladimir Saldo, said the strike was carried out with a Storm Shadao cruise missile, but the damage seen on the bridge did not match the size of the missile's warhead.
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