Retreat after heavy shelling: Report: Recapture of Zaporizhia NPP failed

Retreat after heavy shelling
Report: Recapture of Zaporizhia NPP failed

Shortly after the beginning of the war, Russian troops succeeded in occupying the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. On a night last October, elite Ukrainian forces are apparently attempting to retake the compound. But they meet stiff resistance.

Around 600 elite Ukrainian forces apparently tried to recapture the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which was occupied by Russian troops, last October. This was revealed by a report in the British “Times” reconstructing the Ukrainian offensive. According to a Ukrainian officer, his troops tried to cross the Dnipro River in the south of the country to the nuclear plant in more than 30 boats. However, the offensive failed because of the heavy shelling by the occupiers.

Kiev has not yet officially confirmed the attempted recapture. According to the Times, however, Ukrainian special forces, the country’s military intelligence service and members of the Ukrainian Navy reported on the offensive. This started on the night of October 19, when the Ukrainian troops gathered on the north bank of the Dnieper.

According to one officer, the offensive was well planned and well prepared – the soldiers had enough machine guns and automatic grenade launchers on board their armored boats. The Ukrainian elite forces were backed by the use of the HIMARS multiple rocket launcher, which was part of the western arms deliveries. “The idea was that this would be an infantry-only battle,” the officer explained to the newspaper. The Ukrainians assumed that the Russian troops would not use artillery against them because it would be too dangerous in the area of ​​​​the nuclear power plant.

“They Mined Everything”

According to the report, however, the Ukrainian troops were eventually defeated by fierce resistance from Russian troops. “The Russians built up a very dense defense, they mined everything,” the Times quoted the officer as saying. “As we approached, they even brought up tanks and artillery and started shelling us right on the water.”

Again and again the boats of the Ukrainians had to turn away, so that most of the soldiers did not manage to reach the occupiers’ shore. Those who made it ashore by dawn engaged in a roughly three-hour firefight with Russian troops on the outskirts of the town of Enerhodar, which borders the nuclear power plant. It was very difficult for the Ukrainians to fire at the tanks of the Russian armed forces from the boat while they were moving at high speed, the officer told the newspaper. The commander-in-chief finally ordered the retreat. According to the officer, the right decision: “Many lives were saved thanks to the commander,” the officer is quoted as saying.

At the time of the attempted recapture, the Russian troops had already occupied the power plant for more than six months. They use the area to bomb Ukrainian cities across the river and a large steel plant in the town of Nikopol. In addition, the occupation of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe harbors nuclear dangers. Although the nuclear power plant has been shut down since September last year, it needs constant monitoring and electricity to pump coolant around the nuclear fuel.

Ukraine rules out direct move to nuclear power plants

According to Ukrainian sources, the nuclear power plant had to work with diesel generators six times to prevent a catastrophe. There are also reports of torture of Ukrainian employees at the nuclear power plant. “We see the progressive deterioration of the plant in all directions,” Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s nuclear agency, told the Times. Therefore, before the attempted recapture of the Ukrainians, the international community tried several times to negotiate with Moscow on the demilitarization of the nuclear power plant.

The Ukrainian armed forces are aware of the danger of offensives around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the report said. “If our army can advance south toward Crimea, toward Melitopol, that’s the only option – not direct shelling of the power plant, not a direct push to the power plant’s territory with direct actions against the Russians,” Kotin said.

Ukraine and Russia have been accusing each other of being responsible for attacks around and on the nuclear power plant for months. In September 2022, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, traveled to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant with a team of experts. Since then, the IAEA has been permanently on site with experts. “Despite our presence in the plant for seven months now, the situation in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is still precarious,” Grossi warned when he visited the nuclear power plant again about two weeks ago. He spoke out in favor of setting up a safety zone around the nuclear power plant. According to Russia, it wants to support this.

source site-34