KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Thursday that Russian forces were preparing a “terrorist act” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest atomic power station, as officials in Moscow said the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi, would travel to Russia to meet with nuclear authorities on Friday.
Ukrainian “intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – a terrorist act with the release of radiation,” Zelensky said in a video address released on social media Thursday morning. “They have prepared everything for this.”
Zelensky did not provide further details but said Ukraine would share “all the evidence” with Kyiv’s international partners – “all of them.” He also warned that “radiation knows no borders” and “who it hits” will depend on the “direction of the wind.”
Russia rejected Zelensky’s accusations. “Zelensky’s words that Russia is allegedly preparing an act of terrorism at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are another lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said shortly after the Ukrainian leader’s video was released.
Zelensky’s warning was issued as concerns are growing over the Zaporizhzhia plant’s security.
Fighting in the region has intensified after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive against Russia’s invading forces, while the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant in southern Ukraine has raised worries over water levels in the nuclear station’s cooling pond.
On Thursday, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, would meet the head of Russia’s state nuclear company, Alexei Likhachev, in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on Friday.
(c) 2023, The Washington Post · David L. Stern
