Russians 'tortured' Ukrainian workers from Zaporizhzhia power plant

Russian soldiers ‘tortured’ Ukrainian workers from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after many refused to help transfer it over to Putin’s control

• Workers at the power station worked under Russian occupation until September
• They claim Russian troops beat them and shot them with rubber bullets last year 

Ukrainian power plant workers allege they were tortured by Russian invaders after defiantly refusing to ‘help’ during the occupation of the nuclear station last year.

Speaking to The Times, employees of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in the Russian-occupied city of Enerhodar told of how they were brutalised by invading forces.

For months, armies fought tirelessly around Europe’s largest power station, which remained staffed by Ukrainian employees under Russian control until September.

One anonymous alleged victim said: ‘I had bruises and blood down my face. I’d been beaten around the head and body with a rubber baton… they held a pistol with rubber bullets about a metre or two from my leg and fired.’

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been occupied since February 2022

A Ukrainian soldier on a tank performs firing practice at special shooting range near the frontline area amid Russia-Ukraine war, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on 29 March, 2023

Members of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service clear the rubble at the building which was destroyed as a result of Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia district, Ukraine, Friday, 31 March, 2023

Ihor Murashov, the plant’s director, was arrested last September after refusing to work for the invaders. He evaded torture and was released after negotiations between Putin, French president Macron and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi.

Others spoke of how they have been held and beaten, shot with rubber bullets for their support of the Ukrainian forces.

READ MORE: Incredible close combat video shows Russian soldiers hurling grenades in attempt to storm trenches – before they are gunned down in no-mans-land during Ukrainian fightback

Some claim their colleagues were killed by Russian forces during the occupation.

Some 11,000 workers were employed at the Zaporizhzhia power station when Russian forces claimed occupation on 24 February 2022, the first day of the war.

As reported in The Times, the invaders ‘apparently’ believed they would be welcomed as they looked to exploit the resource-rich southeast of Ukraine. 

An employee explained that troops grew frustrated after workers refused to work to benefit Russia. Soon after they started sending employees ‘to the basement’. 

The powerplant at Zaporizhzhia is one of the ten biggest in the world and was responsible for nearly half the nuclear output of Ukraine’s four reactors. 

Ukrainian forces had little luck trying to recover the plant from 3 March, with rockets from both sides coming dangerously close to hitting the station. 

Fives months later, Mr Grossi warned about the structural integrity of the power plant and sought permission from both sides to inspect it.

Both sides accused each other of trying to sabotage the IAEA mission. 

Energoatom, who operate the four reactors in Ukraine, warned in August last year that rockets fired back and forth risked a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster.

They suggested Russian shelling aimed specifically at containers that processed fuel.

Russia claimed that Ukraine’s 44th Artillery Brigade had stuck the plant a third time.

Tensions mounted through August as Zelensky called for the international community to react to Russian shelling of the site.

On 23 August, Ukraine’s power industry head alleged that Russian forces had tortured staff at the nuclear power station.

Petro Kotin said: ‘They captured about 1,100 personnel from the site, and they kept them in their facilities, the captured facilities and police facilities in the town of Enerhodar.

‘One person was killed. Another person was heavily wounded.

‘They’re trying to push on them to accept the Russian world. All kinds of psychological pushes on them.’

Two days later, the power plant was disconnected from the grid, reportedly due to shelling. The site was forced to fall back on diesel generators.

It was the first time the plant had been disconnected from Ukraine’s national grid in nearly 40 years of operation. In the weeks that followed, the station went on and offline.

UN experts were finally able to inspect the site by 1 September 2022.

Blackouts continued sporadically as the region became a fixed point of the frontline. 

Mr Grossi, who has continued to visit the site for Russian-organised inspections, said the ‘plant and physical integrity of the plant’ had been ‘violated several times’.

Members of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service clear the rubble at the building which was destroyed as a result of Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia district, Ukraine, Friday, 31 March, 2023

A police officer inspects remains of a Russian missile which hit a residential area, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on 9 April, 2023

A picture taken during a visit to Enerhodar shows Rosatom corporation assistant Renat Korchma (L) talking with IAEA Director Rafael Mariano Grossi (R) at the Zaporizhzhia plant

Since then, more reports have also emerged of torture at the station.

In March 2023, Mr Murashov told of how staff members were dragged off to a place known as ‘the pit’ at a nearby police station. If they returned at all, they were found heavily beaten.

Mr Kontin said at the time that only around 4,600 of the plant’s staff were still working as of last month.

They had been given a deadline of 1 April to sign contacts tying them into working for Rosatram, a Russian-owned nuclear company.

A little over half had signed, Kontin claimed, with the rest still defiant. 

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