Ukraine says Russia using Europe’s largest nuclear plant to store missiles
- The chief of Ukraine’s nuclear agency said situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant was ‘extremely tense’
- The facility has been under Russian control since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion
The president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom said on Friday in a televised interview that the situation was “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the plant.
“The occupiers bring their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they already shell the other side of the river Dnipro and the territory of Nikopol,” Pedro Kotin said, referring to the city across the water.
“They physically control the perimeter. The occupiers’ heavy machinery and trucks with weapons and explosives remain on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” he said.
“The pressure on the occupiers to leave the territory of the plant is insufficient,” he added, before taking aim at the International Atomic Energy Agency.