Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant director: staff will not leave the plant despite strikes and pressure from Kyiv

The team at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will not abandon the facility despite attacks by Ukrainian forces and psychological pressure from Kyiv.

ZAES director Yuriy Chernichuk made the statement in an interview with TASS.

According to Chernichuk, Ukrainian forces are striking the ZAES and Enerhodar in an attempt to force employees to leave the facility and the city in order to sow chaos. However, the plant’s staff, he said, understands the possible consequences of a serious incident at the site and has no intention of leaving.

“For people in this profession, for nuclear workers, the safety of the facility is a fundamental priority — it is the core task they carry out. Not because they are such good and heroic people, but simply because these people fully understand the possible consequences that could follow if some serious incident were to occur at the site. In short, we are staying together with the staff — not at the head of them, but together with the staff — holding the line, so to speak,” Chernichuk said.

The plant’s director also expressed confidence that the team is counting on the current situation coming to an end soon.

“And afterward the war itself will end, and we will continue to work,” he concluded.

Over the past month, Ukrainian forces have significantly intensified shelling of the ZAES area and the satellite city of Enerhodar. On May 31, the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck the transport workshop of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, destroying six buses and two Gazelle vehicles. There were no casualties among the staff. The plant noted that attacks on buses transporting workers around the city had been recorded repeatedly before, and indicated that this creates additional risks for the stable operation of the plant and poses a threat to the safety of employees. On the same day, May 31, the enemy attacked a maternity hospital, a boxing school, residential buildings, gas stations, and the Enerhodar administration building.

On May 30, a Ukrainian Armed Forces fiber-optic drone struck the turbine hall of power unit No. 6 at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The damage was recorded by a group of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The site of the attack is located several meters from the reactor.