Zaporizhia, a high-risk nuclear power plant

A missile, planted in the roof and which did not explode, fell just a few meters from a nuclear reactor on Wednesday August 10. A little further on, a body of shells. The proof that the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (Ukraine) is now a battleground. The damage is the result of bombings suffered by the plant during the weekend. In recent days, Zaporizhia finds itself again at the heart of the Ukrainian conflict. In Russian hands since March, it is located opposite territory still held by the Ukrainian army. A site from which the Russians are accused of hitting the Ukrainians on the other side.

Shooting from here, they’d be using the nuclear power plant as a shield. “They are counting on the fact that this nuclear power plant represents a great danger, a great risk if ever it were hit. (…) for the Ukrainian army to hold back its blows”explains Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, research director of the Thomas Moore Institute. The taking of war is also economic. It would be a means of appropriating energy. Some suspect President Vladimir Putin of wanting to connect the plant to the occupied territories.