Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of plotting an attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant | DW News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Russia was planning to stage “dangerous provocations” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. “I warned my colleague that the occupation troops are preparing dangerous provocations at the Zaporizhzhia NPP (Nuclear Power Plant). We agreed to keep the situation under maximum control together with the IAEA,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. Zelenskyy spoke to Macron ahead of the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius next week. On Tuesday, Ukraine and Russia both claimed that the other was plotting an attack on Europe’s largest nuclear facility. The Ukrainian Armed Forces said that “foreign objects similar to explosive devices” were placed on the outer roof of two power units at the power plant. While Renat Karchaa, adviser to the head of the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosenergoatom, warned on state television that Kyiv was planning on shelling the nuclear power plant and dropping a bomb containing nuclear waste at the same time. No evidence was provided to support either claim. Russia occupied the plant in the early stages of the war in Ukraine. Over the past year, it has become a focal point of concern as Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling the plant. However, threats of the dangers of a radiation leak have heightened with the breach of the Kakhovka dam that lies downstream.