Kremlin Still Seeks To Use Zaporizhzhia NPP To Power Southern Russia Expert

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Mykhailo Honchar, President of the Center for Global Studies "Strategy XXI," said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

According to him, the occupiers have spent years trying to restart the reactors despite the obvious impossibility of doing so.

"The enemy still has an appetite for Zaporizhzhia NPP this year, just as they did last year and the year before. Every year they set themselves the goal of restarting one or two reactors, although they understand it's impossible," the expert said.

Read also: Ukrainian MFA: Russia's actions at ZNPP bring Europe closer to brink of nuclear disaster

In 2024, Russia attempted to build a special transmission line through the occupied territories of southern Ukraine to connect ZNPP with the power system of southern Russia, which suffers from a chronic electricity shortage.

"They tried to build a line to connect Zaporizhzhia NPP to the southern Russian grid. But thanks to the actions of Ukraine's Armed Forces, these plans remain futile - it's impossible to just create a separate line or launch a single unit; everything has to be synchronized," Honchar said.

He stressed that even after setbacks in these plans, the Kremlin will not give up on using the plant for provocations.

"Russia will not abandon scenarios aimed at provoking a nuclear incident at one of the units, as they attempted in 2023. That's why continued efforts are needed to prevent negative scenarios," the expert said.

Honchar expressed confidence that, in the long run, Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will inevitably return under the control of Ukraine's Energoatom.

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