Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv dismisses top engineer accused of collaborating with Russia at nuclear plant

Kyiv has dismissed a top engineer at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility this week for allegedly collaborating with Russian forces. Kyiv also urged other Ukrainian staff at the plant to remain loyal to Ukraine.

The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm Energoatom, Petro Kotin, fired top engineer Yuriy Chernichuk Thursday for allegedly collaborating with Russian forces. Kotin made the appeal to dismiss Chernichuk a day after Russia announced that it was promoting Chernichuk to serve as the director of the Russian-occupied plant in southeastern Ukraine.

“Instead of making all efforts to liberate the station as fast as possible, he decided to help the Russian occupiers legalize its criminal seizure and is now inciting other atomic workers to do this,” said Kotin. Chernichuk served as the plant’s deputy engineer and the acting head engineer.

“The only worthy option is to hold on!” Kotin told employees on the Telegram messaging platform. “Hold on and don’t sell your soul to the devil – don’t sign pathetic ‘contracts’ with criminal Rosatom and affiliated firms.”

Back in October, Russia said it was placing the largest nuclear power plant in Europe under the control of Russian authorities. Kyiv said the move was illegal. Russia captured the facility back in March, but Ukrainian technicians are still operating the facility, and Kyiv has accused Moscow of pressuring its workers.

Ukraine on Monday said Russia banned Ukrainian workers who refused to sign contracts with Moscow’s atomic energy firm from entering the facility. The International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations has called for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility to be a protected zone.

On the same day, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that Ukraine’s armed forces have lost around 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers so far in the war since Russia invaded in February. Podolyak’s comments would be the first estimate of casualties since late August, when the head of Ukraine’s armed forces said that almost 9,000 military personnel have been killed.

“We have official figures from the general staff, we have official figures from the top command, and they amount to 10,000 and 12,500 to 13,000 killed,” Podolyak told Kanal 24.