The tension at the Zaporizhzhia NPP is growing: the Russians have evacuated their workers and checked the notification system

More than 100 employees of Rosatom, as well as Ukrainian employees who signed contracts with the Russian company, left the Zaporizhzhia NPP and left the city of Energodar, where it is located. At the same time, the Russians checked the station's notification system. They did it for the first time after the seizure of the NPP.

The Russians continue to frighten the world with the catastrophe at the Zaporozhye NPP. Last week, it became known that the occupiers replaced the cooling pond at the ZNPP. Now there is information that some of the Russian workers have already left the station. This was announced by the mayor of Energodar, Dmytro Orlov.

Zaporizhzhia NPP: Russians withdraw their workers

According to him, it is about 100 Rosatom employees and several Ukrainians who signed the agreement with the occupiers. He reminded that the Russians did not release from the city the Ukrainian workers of the station who did not want to cooperate with the occupiers.

“The 5 000-6 000 station workers who remained in the city are actually hostages. They are not allowed to go to work because they blocked their passes unless they signed a contract. And they also have no way to leave the city,” Orlov told.

He said that there are no shelters in the city where people can hide from radiation pollution in the event of an accident at the ZNPP.

Meanwhile, on July 1, the Russians tested the station's warning system for the first time after capturing it. Askad Ashurbekov, deputy of the Zaporizhia Regional Council, told Kanal 24 about this. According to him, this can be either another provocation by the Russians or indicate a real threat.

“The situation is very tense. The rotation or withdrawal of Russian employees is ongoing. Also, yesterday (July 1 – Tues.) they simulated the implementation of preparatory actions in case of a disaster. They checked the notification system, which did not happen during the entire period of occupation. There are many signals that show that the situation may reach a critical level,” said Askad Ashurbekov.

The situation at the ZNPP: what is happening at the station?

Ukrainian intelligence reported last week that the occupiers have begun to reduce the number of their people on the territory of the ZNPP. According to the GUR, the Russians must leave the station by July 5. And the head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the Russian Federation had prepared everything for a man-made disaster by mining the pond used to cool the reactors.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Russians can blow up the station remotely.

“They are looking for the format and the moment. We know for sure that the moment was considered as one of the plans that later, when the plant is handed over to Ukraine, to detonate it remotely for the release. When we receive the plant, the IAEA has everything clear and check in detail, and warn Russia that we know about your probable plans, and they are dangerous for the world,” Zelensky said on July 1.