Ukraine's Energy Ministry continues to insist nuclear plant accident is Russian propaganda fake

Artur Kryzhnyi — Thursday, 25 July 2024, 20:00

The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has once again refuted the information about an accident at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant (South Ukraine NPP), calling it Russian propaganda.

Source: Ukraine’s Energy Ministry 

Details: The ministry believes this fake news was spread in response to Russia's attempts to "conceal an accident at its own Rostov NPP". 

The Energy Ministry reiterates that there was no power transformer shutdown at the South Ukraine NPP as claimed in the reports. 

The ministry has appealed to the National Security and Defence Council and the Security Service of Ukraine to take measures to hold accountable those who "disseminate Russian propaganda and destabilise the situation in Ukraine".

Earlier, Oleksandr Kharchenko, Director of the Energy Research Centre, reported three transformers had caught fire at the South Ukraine NPP, which led to a temporary deterioration of the power outage situation. 

Subsequently, during a question hour in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament), Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko stated that the information about transformers at the South Ukraine NPP catching fire was false and a Russian narrative.

Quote: "The Center for Countering Disinformation has already stated that this is all fake, and interestingly, this information initially appeared on Russian channels," he said. 

"Then it made its way into the Ukrainian media space. But it's not true; the power grid is functioning. The question is why this [spreading of misinformation -ed.] is being done," Halushchenko continued. 

Following this, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak submitted an inquiry about the situation at the NPP to Ukrenergo, Ukraine's national energy company, and received a completely opposite response.

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