Emergency drills have been carried out by Ukrainian workers wearing hazmat suits by the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant amid fears of a disaster on Friday following a Russian “provocation” warning.
People have been acting out scenes for a potential nuclear disaster in Zaporizhzhia with workers wearing protective outfits and showing how they would take care of victims.
Images showed people being hosed down while others were seen being taken to medical tents on stretchers.
If the nuclear power plant, which is in the hands of the Russians, did go into meltdown then a car park in the town of Zaporizhzhia nearby, which is held by Ukrainians, would be used as a rescue base.
The drills followed warnings from the Russian defence ministry of a "minor accident" at the nuclear power plant on Friday which it said would be carried out by Ukraine with the apparent aim of trying to put the blame on Vladimir Putin's forces.
It said the "provocation" was timed to coincide with a visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who arrived in Lviv on Wednesday and is due to visit the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, and that it may involve a radiation leak.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, dismissed the Russian defence ministry's remarks, saying it "laughs cynically".
He wrote on Twitter : "There is a solution. You just need to take the (munitions) out of the halls, demine the buildings, release the plant's personnel from cells, stop shelling (the southern city of) Nikopol from (the plant's) territory and leave the station."
At the same time in a briefing, Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's radioactive, chemical and biological defence forces, said the plant's back-up support systems had been damaged as a result of shelling.
The UN chief and the presidents of Turkey and Ukraine on Thursday discussed ways to end Kyiv's conflict with Russia and secure Europe's largest nuclear power station, which has come under shelling at the front lines.
Speaking with reporters after talks in Ukraine, Mr Guterres said he was gravely concerned by the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and called for military equipment and personnel to be withdrawn.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he, Mr Guterres and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed building on recent positive atmosphere to revive peace negotiations with Russia that took place in Istanbul in March.
In a deal brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement in July for Moscow to lift a blockade of Ukrainian grain shipments, and exports resumed at the beginning of August.
