The Russian occupiers have ordered the evacuation of the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located. The situation seems chaotic. residents report.
“I’m extremely concerned about the very real security risks,” said the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, about the situation around the Russian-held Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. According to him, the situation is becoming “increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous”.
Grossi therefore emphasizes on the IAEA website: In order to prevent the risk of a serious nuclear accident and the associated consequences for the population and the environment, the nuclear power plant must be protected.
Grossi had visited the largest nuclear plant in Europe in March. He issued his warning after Moscow ordered the evacuation of the city of Enerhodar, where the nuclear power plant is located, because Ukrainian shelling is said to be increasing. Most of the employees of the Zaporizhia NPP live in Enerhodar.
IAEA experts who are in the nuclear power plant confirm that the evacuation has already begun. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the occupiers are taking the people to other occupied parts of the Zaporizhia region and the Crimean peninsula.
Collaboration, glitches and panic
“Thirteen places on the line of contact are affected by the evacuation, including Enerhodar, Dniprorudne, Vasylivka, Chernihivka, Polohy, Tokmak, Vodyane and Kamyanka. People are scared and warned of a counter-offensive by the Ukrainian army. That is why it is necessary to evacuate to Berdyansk for two weeks,” says a city council deputy who fled Enerhodar.
He does not want to be named because he fears his parents could be harassed since they are still in the occupied territory.
Pavlo*, a former employee of the Zaporizhia NPP, says that residents of Enerhodar were taken away from the local school No. 2 and from the city hospital for several days. Both the school and the hospital were surrounded by armed Russian soldiers.
“The evacuation is being led by a collaborator, son-in-law of a former director of the power plant. Only those who want to leave or are afraid of the return of the Ukrainian authorities are still being taken away. But we are afraid that we will be deported later by force.”
Another resident of Enerhodar is Lyudmyla*. The reason for the evacuation is unclear to her, because recently there have been no fighting at all, she explains. But all kindergartens and schools have been closed since May 6th.
“We were told that children and their parents, the elderly and the sick would be prepared for evacuation. There is also a hotline where you can register for a transport.”
However, according to Lyudmyla, there are problems with this. Because the buses had breakdowns, people were on the road for a long time, she says. Some were not taken to occupied Berdyansk, as promised, but to Russia. Others, according to Lyudmyla, were housed in uninhabitable or remote buildings, making it difficult to feed them.
As the resident reports, all employees of the occupation authorities in Enerhodar were also sent home. As a result, collaborators and people with Russian passports in particular panicked. “Some of our acquaintances who have Russian passports immediately drove to Crimea in their car. But there was a traffic jam and they didn’t make it to the peninsula, they stayed in Henichesk on the Azov Sea for the time being.”
What will happen to the nuclear power plant workers from Zaporizhia?
Citizens of Enerhodar tell DW that after more than a year of Russian occupation, only a third of the city’s once more than 53,000 inhabitants remain. Most of them are current or former nuclear power plant workers with their families – and they are not allowed to leave the city.
“Even those who refuse to work for the occupying forces and no longer have access to the nuclear power plant cannot leave and are sent back to the checkpoints,” says Pavlo.
The Ukrainian power plant operator Enerhoatom, on the other hand, says the occupiers are preparing to evacuate around 3,100 people from Enerhodar – primarily 2,700 nuclear power plant employees and their families who have signed a contract with the Russians. “This exacerbates the already extremely critical shortage of personnel needed for the safe operation of the power plant,” warns Enerhoatom.
The Russian side denies the Ukrainian reports. The adviser to the Russian company Rosenergoatom, Renat Karchaa, explained that the team at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is continuing to work as usual despite the announced evacuation. “All further plans and measures will be adapted to the real changes in the situation,” Karchaa said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Tense situation in Russian-occupied Enerhodar
Since the evacuation was announced, many shops and premises of Ukrainian banks that were occupied by the Russians and where Russian banks then operated have closed in the city. “On May 6 and 7, Russia’s Promsvyazbank packed up and left,” says Pavlo.
The city councilor, who does not wish to be named, reports that all medical equipment has now been removed from the city hospital. “First they took away their own wounded, then the dialysis patients. They were sent to Yevpatoriya, Crimea, for two weeks, they were told. But it is clear that this is about the theft of devices. The residents of a dacha settlement were also given until the end of the week to pack their things. People have not been allowed to go there since Monday. Everything is now being stolen from the dachas and taken away.”
The duly elected mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, is not in town. He told Radio Liberty that the Russian occupiers also removed computers and documents from the offices. In addition, there is already a shortage of certain foods in the city. Gas stations and ATMs are also empty.
City residents only partially acknowledge the shortage of food and hygiene items. “As far as groceries go, there isn’t a huge rush because we stocked up for a year — muesli, canned food, water, just in case,” says Pawlo. He and other local residents hope that the Ukrainian army will liberate their city from Russian occupation as soon as possible.
* Name changed by editors
Adaptation from the Ukrainian: Markian Ostapchuk
Author: Lilia Rzheutska, Anastasia Shepeleva
