The US “has no reason to doubt” Russian claims that they are in control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant that they assaulted overnight in Ukraine, according to a senior defense official.
The official said the US believes there is not any radioactive leakage and that the fires in the nearby buildings have been put out.
“We don’t have a firm sense on the nature of the attack on the power plant, so I can’t give you a blow by blow of exactly how that occurred and who the Russians employed and what they employed to make that assault on the power plant. But the main thing is we don’t see any radioactive leakage,” the official said.
The US is “deeply” concerned about what the Russian intentions are regarding their control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, according to the official.
The official said the US does not know how many people the Russians have at the plant and what their control looks like “in terms of continuation of operations.”
The US doesn’t know the expertise of the Russians in control of the plant or what their near-term intentions are for the plant, according to the official.
“We are in no position to refute claims that they are in control of the nuclear power plant. But we don’t know exactly right now what that control means and what it looks like. So I would be loath to say that we know with specificity, you know, how many people they have there and what their control over the power plant looks like in terms of continuation of operations. And again, that’s one of the things that deeply concerns us, is that we don’t know what expertise they have, what they’ve applied to this, what their intentions are in the near term. I mean all of that is of great concern,” the official said.
