(Reuters) – Moscow said on Wednesday it had promoted the chief engineer of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to become its head, filling a position vacant since October when Kyiv says the plant’s boss was abducted by Russian authorities.
The nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, has been occupied by Russian forces since March. It has not been producing electricity since September but is still run by its Ukrainian staff to keep it safe. Moscow said in October it was putting the plant under control of Russia’s nuclear authorities, a move Kyiv says is illegal.
Russian nuclear agency Rosenergoatom announced that chief engineer Yuriy Chernichuk would become plant director. Ukraine says the plant’s boss, Ihor Murashov, was abducted by Russian forces on his way from the plant in October.
Murashov was later released after Russian state television broadcast a video in which he was shown confessing to “communicating with Ukrainian intelligence”. The IAEA U.N. watchdog said he was allowed to join his family in Ukrainian-held territory.
“The new director of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and first deputy general director of the Zaporizhzhia power plant operating company is Yuriy Chernichuk,” Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Rosenergoatom’s CEO, said, praising him as a “courageous” successor.
Chernichuk could not be reached for comment.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power operator Energoatom said in May that Russia had forbidden Chernichuk from leaving the city of Enerhodar, where the plant is based, holding him and other staff as “hostages”.
The six-reactor plant has since come under repeated shelling, drawing condemnation from the IAEA, which has called for a safety zone around it, a proposal so far resisted by Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine each blame the other for the shelling at the plant, located on a Russian-held bank of the Dnipro River across from Ukrainian-held territory. Kyiv also accuses Moscow of hiding military equipment at the plant, which Russia denies.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Peter Graff)
