On Friday, Ukraine’s military intelligence service reported Russia is steadily reducing staff at the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern Ukraine.
Reuters could not verify why some people left. Russia, which occupied the factory in March 2022, did not respond.
Kyiv accused Russia of preparing a “terrorist” radiological strike at the nuclear reactor this month. Moscow denied it.
“According to the latest data, the occupation contingent is gradually leaving the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Ministry of Defence (GUR) reported on Telegram.
GUR reported that three Rosatom employees “in charge of the Russians’ activities” left the nuclear power station first.
It recommended that Rosatom-contracted Ukrainian workers leave.
It advised employees to leave by July 5 and move to Crimea, which Russia captured from Ukraine in 2014.
GUR said military patrols were reducing on the plant’s huge acreage and in Enerhodar, and plant staff had been advised to blame Ukraine “in case of any emergencies.”
Ukraine practiced a nuclear catastrophe response near the reactor on Thursday.
Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, Zaporizhzhia, has been shelled by Kyiv and Moscow.
The 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine, then part of the USSR, was the worst ever.
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