Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Dmytro Smolyenko / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 12:48 pm, May 06, 2023
The Russian occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said Saturday that no evacuation of site employees was planned for the time being after the announcement of partial evacuations in the area, amid fears of a Ukrainian offensive. On the other hand, Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, a supporter of the Kremlin attack in Ukraine, was wounded Saturday in the "explosion" of a car in Russia.THE ESSENTIALS
The Russian occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine said Saturday that no evacuation of site employees was planned for the time being after the announcement of partial evacuations in the area, amid fears of a Ukrainian offensive. "Currently there is no need to evacuate the employees of the plant and the inhabitants of the city (of Energodar, where the plant is located). Stay calm," Yuri Chernichuk, the site's director appointed by Russian authorities, said in a statement.
"There is nothing to worry about. All the reactors (of the plant) are shut down," he said. The day before, the regional head installed by Moscow, Yevgeny Balitsky, announced a partial evacuation of 18 localities under Russian occupation in the Zaporizhzhia region, including Energodar. According to Balitsky, these "temporary" evacuations primarily concern children with their parents, the elderly and disabled, hospital patients in the face of the multiplication, according to him, of Ukrainian bombings in recent days.
Russian authorities plan to evacuate about 70,000 people from localities in the region, according to another occupation administration official, Andrei Kozenko, quoted by TASS. The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, controlled by the Russian military since March 2022, is located on the banks of the Dnieper River, which in this area separates the two camps. She was repeatedly shot at, raising fears of a catastrophe.
Writer Prilépine injured in "explosion", another person killed
Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, a supporter of the Kremlin attack in Ukraine, was wounded Saturday in the "explosion" of a car in Russia and another person was killed, said the Ministry of the Interior, amid a wave of attacks affecting the country.
"According to preliminary information, one person was killed by the explosion, and the writer Zakhar Prilepin in the car was injured," the Interior Ministry's press service said in a statement, adding that the incident took place in the Nizhny Novgorod region.