Clashes also continue in the region of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, in Russian hands since March 2022. kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of bombing the city of Energodar which hosts the plant and the nuclear site itself. even, leaving a risk of disaster. The employees of the plant, under pressure, are numerous to take the path of exile. Their first drop point is 55 kilometers from the plant.
With our special envoys,Boris Vicith and Anastasia Becchio
In a building of the University of Zaporijia, the Energodar aid center for displaced people accommodates many employees of the nuclear power plant. After holding out for more than five months, 58-year-old Serhii’s nerves gave way, he fled and even had a short stay in hospital: ” In the nuclear plant, Russian soldiers are there to supposedly protect the site, but they have stored all their military equipment there. How can you work with a gun to your head? It’s unbearable there. »
Delicate situation
The situation around the plant is delicate confirms Dmitro Orlov, the mayor of Energodar, former chief engineer of the turbines, in exile in Zaporijia: ” On the site of the plant, it is very tense. There are bombardments day and night. Employees are afraid to go to work for fear of being hit by these shots. »
” It was terrifying »
This plant employee, who does not wish to give his name because part of his family is still there, recently experienced one of these strikes: “ It fell on the passage that connects the building where the spent fuel is stored to reactor number 2. We had to quickly go to protect ourselves in a building with thick walls, but it was terrifying, because even these thick walls were moving. “. A few days later, the man who worked for more than twenty years in the plant as a technician, decided to give up his job and leave his town.
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