Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: Zelensky warns Russian soldiers

Any Russian soldiers who shoots at or under the cover of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is a “special target” for security services, Ukraine has warned.

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of using the plant – Europe’s largest – as “nuclear blackmail”.

Russia seized the facility in early March and has been accused of turning it into an army base, prompting warnings of a nuclear disaster.

The plant has been shelled in recent days, with sides blaming each other.

The six-nuclear reactor Zaporizhzhia plant is located in the city of Enerhodar, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River (Dnipro in Ukrainian) in southern Ukraine.

Russia has kept Ukrainian personnel to operate the facility.

The UN has warned that continued hostilities around the station could lead to a nuclear disaster affecting much of Europe.

Russia has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing at the plant.

It says it seized control of the plant to prevent leaks of radioactive materials during fighting in the region.

During his address late on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Russia had engaged in “constant provocations” by firing on the plant and said forces stationed there had used it as a base to shell the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets – on the other bank of the river.

This was being done, the president said, to “blackmail our state and the entire free world”. But he stressed that “Russian blackmail only mobilises even more global efforts to confront terror”.

“Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots under the cover of the plant, must understand that he is becoming a special target for our intelligence, for our special services, for our army,” the president said.

He added that “every day” of Russia’s occupation of the plant “increases the radiation threat to Europe”.