Europe’s largest Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP), located on the territory occupied by Russian troops, “completely got out of control”, the situation there is “very tense”, said in an interview AP agency Director General of the International Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi on Wednesday 3 August.
“All the principles of nuclear safety were violated at the station. What is at stake is extremely serious and dangerous,” Grossi stressed. The physical integrity of the station was violated, he pointed out, citing shelling at the beginning of the war, when the nuclear power plant was captured by Russian troops.
According to Grossi, a “paradoxical situation” arose at the plant, when the nuclear power plant controlled by Russia, but the Ukrainian staff continues to direct its work, which leads to inevitable tensions. While the IAEA has some contacts with staff, they are “imperfect” and “not uniform,” Grossi said.
IAEA ‘begging’ to let the agency into the station
The head of the IAEA also said that the agency does not have confidence that the nuclear power plant receives everything it needs, since the supply chains of equipment and spare parts have been disrupted.
“In order to prevent a nuclear accident,” the IAEA needs to inspect nuclear power plants to ensure that nuclear material is protected, Grossi urged. “And that’s why I insisted from the very first day that we could go there to spend this safety assessment and protection, to carry out repairs and provide assistance, as we already did in Chernobyl,” he said, calling on Russia and Ukraine to cooperate.
“I plead as an international public servant, as the head of an international organization, I plead with both sides to allow this mission to be carried out,” Grossi said.
Previously in an interview with D.W. The IAEA director called the organization of such a trip in the current conditions a “difficult task.” The reason is that the station is located in a war zone where shelling continues, and the mission must be controlled not only by the UN, but also by Ukraine, since the IAEA considers this country “the only legitimate owner of the nuclear power plant.”
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Over 90 percent of all buildings destroyed in Mariupol
Even at the beginning of the fourth month of the war, the Russian military continue to claim that they are striking exclusively at military infrastructure, as well as at the places of deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and imaginary “Ukrainian militants.” At the same time, most of the cities captured by Russia in the east of Ukraine – Mariupol, Rubizhne, Popasna, Severodonetsk – are almost completely destroyed.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Cemetery on the outskirts of Mariupol
Another Kremlin propaganda claim: the Russian army does not shell residential areas. According to the mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, during the almost 80-day Russian siege, more than 22,000 inhabitants died from artillery shelling in the city, the city was destroyed by more than 90%.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
A blow to the theater in Mariupol
The next assertion of Russian propaganda is that the civilian population in Ukraine is not the target of the Russian army. On March 16, an air strike was carried out on the theater building in Mariupol, which was used as a bomb shelter. “Children” was written in large letters in front of the building, the inscription was visible in the pictures from space. The impact killed about 600 people who were hiding in the theater.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Destroyed residential buildings in Severodonetsk
Russian propaganda calls the war in Ukraine “liberation” of the local population from “Ukrainian Nazis”. In the coming days, Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region may be completely captured by Russia. Before the war, 100 thousand people lived in the city, of which, according to the Ukrainian authorities, 85 thousand left without waiting for their “liberation”.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Ukrainians flee from “liberation” in the west of the country or in Europe
The attitude towards the Russian “liberators” is also clearly shown by the flows of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. In three months, about 13 million Ukrainians left their permanent place of residence, about 90 percent of them went to the regions of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv or to European countries (6.8 million people). According to the UNHCR, about 1.1 million Ukrainians left for Russia.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Russian shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant
Another assertion of Russian propaganda: the Russian army does not fire on vital non-military infrastructure. However, on March 4, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Energodar was shelled, then it was still under the control of the Ukrainian authorities. The administrative building of the power plant burned down.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Residents of Kherson protest against Russian occupation
The arrival of the Russian “liberators” was not welcomed by the inhabitants of the occupied Kherson region. Kherson saw numerous peaceful protests by local residents against the occupation in March and April. In April, local activists and city officials began to disappear in Kherson.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Kherson region is transferred to settlements in rubles
The authorities of the Russian Federation, including Putin, have repeatedly stated that the purpose of the “special operation” is not the occupation of Ukraine. But in the Kherson region, captured in early March, they announced the transition to Russian rubles from May 1. And from September, the region will completely abandon the hryvnia, the occupying authorities said. A similar situation is in the Zaporozhye region (in the photo – a supermarket in Melitopol).
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
“Non-occupation” of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions is accompanied by the issuance of Russian passports to residents
How Russia “does not plan” to occupy Ukraine: On May 25, Russian President Putin signed a decree on the simplified issuance of Russian passports to residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. On May 30, the first subdivision of the Russian Federal Migration Service opened in Melitopol. At the end of May, the heads of the Russian-appointed administrations of both regions announced that both regions “will take a course towards becoming part of Russia.”
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Humanitarian aid with propaganda added
Another sign of occupation: receiving humanitarian aid in Russian-occupied cities is impossible without forced familiarization with the programs of Russian state television channels. In the photo: a truck with a video screen broadcasting Russian TV, at the point of distribution of humanitarian aid in Mariupol.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Putin’s statements for residents of occupied Mariupol
… or with the statements of Putin, on whose orders the Russian military invasion of Ukraine was launched. In the photo: a van with a large TV screen on one of the central squares of Mariupol.
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War in Ukraine: what is happening in Russian-occupied cities
Russian Yunarmiya members at the monument to the victims of World War II in Mariupol
Another sign of Russian occupation is the guard of honor of the Yunarmiya, an organization that does not exist in Ukraine, with Russian, Soviet and “DPR” flags at the monument to those killed in World War II in Mariupol.
Author: Sergey Gushcha
