Ukraine’s nuclear agency, Energoatom, pounds the alarm over the latest threats that came from Major General Valery Vasiliev – the head of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological defence forces, who was quoted as saying the Zaporizhzhya power plant site  will be ‘either Russian land or a scorched desert’.

The senior Russian military official said:

‘We have mined all the important facilities of Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant. And we are not concealing it from the enemy. We have warned them. The enemy knows that the station will be either Russian, on no-one’s. We are ready for the consequences of this move. And you, warriors-liberators, must understand that we have no other way. And if there is the toughest order, we must fulfil it with honour!’

On August 6, Kyiv  pointed a finger at Moscow for renewed shelling at the plant site arguing it  damaged three radiation sensors. There were also reports of shells hitting the storage site with 174 containers of nuclear spent containers of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel ”.