Russia claims Ukraine planning to inflict ‘systematic damage’ to Zaporizhzhia plant

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia on Sunday claimed that Ukraine is planning to inflict “systematic damage” to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

“Now they have embarked on a plan for ‘their own salvation’: the systematic infliction of damage to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Telegram.

Zakharova also said that the upcoming NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius later this month should devote its primary attention to this issue, saying: “After all, the vast majority of Alliance members will be in the zone of direct defeat.”

Her comment came in response to Saturday’s statement by Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar on the occasion of the 500th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Maliar said on Telegram that it had been 273 days since the "first strike" on the Crimean bridge, which was carried out "in order to break the logistics of the Russians."

On Oct. 8, an explosion took place at the Kerch Bridge, a road and rail crossing that is Russia’s sole land link with the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014 in a move widely viewed as illegal by the international community, including Türkiye and the UN General Assembly.