Russia warns of nuclear catastrophe at Zaporizhzhia power plant

Tensions escalate around the security of the power plant in southern Ukraine.

A general view of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, situated in the Russian-controlled area of Enerhodar. Picture: AFP

Russia repositioned three MiG-311 planes capable of carrying hypersonic Kinzhal missiles to its enclave of Kaliningrad on Thursday as part of “measures of deterrence” while also warning of a nuclear catastrophe at Zaporizhzhia.

The Russian ministry of defence confirmed the movements of the aircraft releasing a statement saying ”three Mig-31i aircraft with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were relocated to the Chkalovsk airfield in the Kaliningrad region”, and added that they will be on “around-the-clock combat duty.”

NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg says it is ‘urgent’ that the UN's atomic watchdog be allowed to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine that is under Russian military control. Picture: AFP

This comes as tensions escalated around the security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Southern Ukraine, with Russia accusing Ukraine of planning a provocation - in concert with the arrival of UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ visit to western Ukraine - allegedly to “create a 30km exclusion zone”.

In a briefing on Thursday Igor Kirillov, who heads Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defence Troops, accused Ukraine of attacking the plant and forgetting the impact of previous nuclear disasters.

He presented Moscow-based journalists with a map showing radioactive material from the site would extend to Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, Belarus and Germany and warned that both the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima nuclear incident resulted in hundreds of thousands of people abandoning their homes.

According to Mr Kirillov, in both cases “the failure of support systems, the disruption of power supply and partial and complete shutdown of the cooling systems led to overheating of nuclear fuel and the destruction of the reactor”.

Also on Thursday Mr Guterres met with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and then also with the Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv to discuss the security at Zaporizhzhia, which is controlled by the Russians using Ukrainian staff, as well as talking about grain exports.

Mr Erdogan said Turkey was “worried, we don’t want another Chernobyl”.

“While continuing our efforts to find a solution (to the conflict), we remain on the side of our Ukraine friends,” Erdogan said after the talks.

While up to 25 ships have been able to negotiate the Black Sea to export grain to the west, a Russian cargo ship with stolen Ukrainian grain, originally destined for the northern Lebanon port of Tripoli, has arrived instead in Syria.

“According to our information, SV Konstantin has docked in Syria,” the Ukraine embassy in Beirut told Agence France Press.

It said the ship was carrying “grains that were plundered and illegally transported by the Russian occupation authorities”.

The arrival of the hypersonic missiles in Kaliningrad, which can reach speeds of Mach 12 and travel 2000kms, comes as the Kremlin insists on unimpeded transit of freight and passengers between Kaliningrad, which is surrounded by NATO members Lithuania and Poland, and the rest of Russia.

Throughout the near six month invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been bolstering its weaponry in Kaliningrad. Some military analysts had believed that the Kinzhal missiles had been in Kaliningrad since February, alongside the shorter range Iskander missiles, but this is the first public acknowledgement by the Russians about their location.

On Thursday night unverified footage emerged on social media channels of what was purported to be the inside of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant turbine room showing more than half a dozen Russian military trucks parked on the lower floor.