The Joint Forces Operation Headquarters has denied Russian allegations that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly shelled the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Claims by Russian invaders that Ukrainian forces have allegedly struck the territory of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant are yet another cheap propaganda ploy. Ukraine strictly adheres to international law and is not conducting any military operations on the territory of this civilian nuclear facility. 

This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on its official Telegram channel.

Following a previous fake story about a “strike on the ZNPP’s 6th power unit,” the aggressor country’s propaganda swiftly spread a new report about an alleged second shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine within 24 hours. This time, the occupiers claimed an attack on the plant’s transport depot, which supposedly destroyed six buses and two cars. Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Public Diplomacy, emphasized that these enemy fabrications are blatant lies, as it makes no sense for Ukraine to attack its own power plant, which was seized by the Russians back in 2022.

The Center noted that for years, the Kremlin has been systematically churning out similar fake news stories about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in order to lay the informational groundwork for carrying out its own large-scale provocations at the plant. With such preemptive accusations, Moscow is attempting to shift the blame for potential accidents onto Kyiv. Andriy Kovalenko added that the dissemination of such reports may indicate the invaders’ intent to justify their future nuclear terror, so the threat of actual shelling of the facility by Russia remains extremely high.