Russian aircraft Su-30 and Su-35 are maneuvering in a no-fly zone over the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants and are firing from there. They are doing this to prevent Ukrainian troops from firing back, as shooting down an aircraft over a nuclear power plant could lead to an environmental catastrophe.
Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Air Force Command, told LB.ua about this tactic of the occupiers.
"They hang over ChNPP, including the protective structure above the 4th power unit, where radioactive waste is stored. And from there they attack objects of infrastructure, military and civilian objects. A similar situation is observed over ZNPP. They are shelling, and we should have shot them down, but we can't do that, Ignat explains. - Because the risks of an accident at a nuclear power plant are too big. That is why it is very important for the IAEA and states-members of NATO to consider closing the skies over Ukraine urgently and creating a no-fly zone here."
Hundreds of tons of radioactive materials, including radioactive dust formed as the result of the Chornobyl accident, are stored under the protective structure built above the 4th Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Unit. Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Yuriy Ihnat noted that it is a question of security not only in Ukraine but in the whole region, as the actions of the Russian army can cause a catastrophe of a continental scale.
Today the head of the state enterprise “Energoatom” Petro Kotin suggested the International Atomic Energy Agency to create 30 km safe zones around nuclear facilities in Ukraine. He stated that Russian convoys of military equipment, artillery, and powerful volley fire systems are constantly moving directly near the “Energoatom” nuclear objects. Shells are exploding near the nuclear power plant. This could lead to highly undesirable threats on the planetary scale.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is currently occupied by Russians. Information about the capture of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was fake.