General Staff: Russia preparing provocation at occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Russia may be preparing a provocation at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant "in the near future," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on July 4.

Russian forces have placed objects similar to explosive devices on the roof of the plant's third and fourth power units, according to the General Staff. "Their detonation should not damage power units but may create a picture of shelling by Ukraine's military."

The General Staff added that it was monitoring the situation, ready to act "under any conditions."

On June 20, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced, citing intelligence data, that Moscow was considering a terrorist attack on the nuclear power plant through radiation leakage.

Several days later, Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the New Stateman that Russia had completed preparations for the attack.

On July 1, Zelensky told Spanish reporters that another possibility was that Russian troops could give back the station under Ukrainian control after having mined it, only to blow it up remotely.

Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, since March 2022. They have used it as a military base to launch attacks at Ukrainian-controlled territory across the Dnipro River.

Official: Terrorism at nuclear plant will be considered nuclear attack

A terrorist attack against a nuclear plant would be considered equivalent to using nuclear weapons against civilians, National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksii Danilov told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on June 30.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek