Law-enforcement agencies and rescuers in Ukraine are preparing to eliminate the consequences of a possible terrorist attack at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP, the head of the country’s Interior Ministry Igor Klymenko said.
“In the next few days, we will hold appropriate exercises with road closures and appropriate turnaround of sanitary roadblocks, where we will check radiation. <…> We want to once again group all services so that we can clearly respond to any challenges”, Klymenko said (quoted by RBC-Ukraine).
According to him, citizens who want to leave the territories affected by radiation will be provided with transport. “By this territory we mean the 50-kilometer radius zone around the ZNPP. If we take both the right bank and the left bank, that’s about half a million people”, explained the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
He also noted that the radioactive background, which will be in the air after a possible terrorist attack, will last for about a day. “That is, by 80% we will reduce the radioactive background exactly during the day”, – he stressed. He advised people in the radiation affected area to close their rooms during this time, shut off the ventilation, turn off air conditioners and seal all holes in the houses with a moistened cloth or duct tape.
“That’s all you need to know. And, of course, watch the media, where we will constantly inform the population about the situation that is around and, of course, about the safety measures that we will take together”, Klymenko concluded.
On the eve, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is planning to carry out a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. “Our intelligence has received information that Russia is considering a scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant with a release of radiation. They have already prepared everything for it”, he said in a video message.
Zelensky reminded that radiation “knows no state borders” and who it will hit “is determined only by the direction of the wind”.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of preparing provocations at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. In May, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine said that Moscow was planning a simulated accident at the plant. Russia denied this. However, Volodymyr Rogov, a member of the occupation administration of Zaporizhzhya Region, said that Kyiv was preparing a provocation at the plant in order to then accuse Russia of it.
Russian troops seized the Zaporizhzhya NPP last March. After the annexation, Russian President Vladimir Putin transferred the plant to Rosenergoatom.
