Two satellite images show five white shapes that could resemble those of explosives on the roof of reactor 4 at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
The photos were taken by satellite imagery company Planet Labs on the morning of July 5. sky news later shared the images on his site.
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The adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs in Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, also posted the images on Twitter. He also relayed comments from Petro Kotin, the chief engineer of Energoatom, Ukraine’s national nuclear power generation company.
“Machine gun nests have been placed on some reactor roofs and photos indicate there may also be explosives.”
These images support the announcement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who was worried on Tuesday: “Russian troops have placed objects resembling explosives on the roof of several reactors at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant”.
According to Mr. Zelensky, the Russians would try to “simulate an attack [ukrainienne] on the central.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “making progress” in securing access to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, its director general Rafael Grossi said on Friday.
“I think we are making progress,” Grossi said during a visit to Tokyo.
The head of the IAEA specified that inspectors had visited several sites including the cooling pools, but that they had not had access to the roofs where Ukraine suspects the Russian forces, which occupy the plant, of having placed mines or explosives.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll get that clearance,” Grossi said.
“It’s a combat zone, it’s an active war zone, so sometimes it can take a day or two to get the clearances,” he explained.
Ukraine, whose Chernobyl power plant (north) had already been in 1986, during the Soviet era, the scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history, accused Moscow on Tuesday of preparing a “provocation” on the site.
The Ukrainian army claims that “objects similar to explosive devices were placed” on the roofs of reactors 3 and 4 of the plant.
Russia assured the reverse that kyiv planned to commit a “subversive act” at the plant.
Falling into the hands of the Russian army on March 4, 2022, the largest power plant in Europe has been targeted by fire and has been cut off from the electricity network on several occasions, a precarious situation which raises fears of a major nuclear accident.
– With AFP