Six Russian National Guard commanders were convicted for shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
A Ukrainian court has found six commanders of the Russian National Guard—belonging to the aggressor state of Russia—guilty in absentia of violating the laws and customs of war during the assault on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in 2022. Two major generals and four commanders of battalion tactical groups were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, those convicted are Majors General Oleksiy Dombrovskyi and Dmytro Chistyakov, as well as Muradkhan Akhmedkhanov, Serhiy Dovhan, Yuriy Lukachov, and Oleksiy Reshetnev. The verdict was handed down in a special court proceeding in the absence of the defendants.
According to “Ukrainska Pravda,” on the night of March 4, 2022, Russian troops stormed the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant—the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Under cover of tanks and heavy armored vehicles, they shelled the plant’s grounds for several hours, specifically targeting the nuclear reactors and the spent nuclear fuel storage facility.
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A fire broke out on the plant’s grounds, and critical networks and communications were damaged. Russian troops prevented rescue workers from extinguishing the fire, while ZNPP employees remained trapped at their workstations. Experts confirmed that these actions could have led to the destruction of the reactors’ protective barriers and a large-scale release of radioactive substances.
“The shelling of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was one of the most dangerous incidents of this war. It was a deliberate attack on a facility where an accident could have caused a large-scale radiation disaster,” said Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
