The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksii Danilov, said on Tuesday that the Ukrainian authorities are preparing for “any scenario” at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian control for months.
“We are preparing very carefully for any scenario that may occur. Some training is underway. We are working according to the procedures we have,” Danilov told a news conference, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine stressed that in the event of a Russian attack on the center, the international community must have an instant and forceful reaction.
“If, God forbid, such events do occur, then we should talk about the kind of world we live in, when a terrorist country can launch a nuclear attack against a country that has nothing to do with it,” he added.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky recently warned that Russia may be planning an offensive against Zaporizhia with the aim of causing a nuclear accident, as part of the offensive he launched against Ukraine on February 24 last year.
“The existence of Russia within the limits in which it exists today is a threat to the entire civilized world. And the events that have taken place there in recent days with the participation of the [grupo mercenário] Wagner indicate that this is a country without control”, he declared.
Regarding the Wagner Group, Danilov stressed that it is a terrorist organization and warned that its members “can travel outside of Russia”, something that should put the international community on alert.
Dozens of civilians joined an exercise on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhia, located about 100 kilometers from the nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
According to the description of the Associated Press (AP) agency, in a tent set up to provide the first treatments, rescuers practiced washing people with soap and performed procedures to administer treatment to potential victims in areas affected by radiation.
Russia occupied the unit in the first moments of the war. Last year, it became a flashpoint of global concern as Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of bombing nuclear facilities.
Ukraine’s military intelligence recently claimed, without providing evidence, that Russia is planning a “large-scale provocation” at the country’s southeastern nuclear power plant.
If something were to happen at the plant, people would be transported from radiation-contaminated areas to a place where they would receive medical and psychological assistance, emergency services told the AP.
The next step would be a temporary center where people would be washed to clean radiation from the body’s surface and then transported to evacuation points.
Last year, when the threat of an accident arose for the unit, Ukraine established a crisis response headquarters and several exercises have been held since then.
According to the emergency services, in the event of a nuclear disaster, some 300,000 people would be compulsorily evacuated from the areas closest to the facilities, which would cover four regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv.
People can bring their pets with them depending on the services. Buses, trains and personal cars would be used for evacuation of the affected area.
Depending on the direction of the wind and the spread of radiation, people would be herded to safer areas in Ukraine.
“There are different scenarios, but we are preparing for the most critical one,” said Yurii Vlasenko, Ukraine’s deputy energy minister.
Source: TSF
