500 Russian Troops Inside Nuclear Plant, Torturing Staff To Do Propaganda, Says Ukraine

As fear looms over the fate of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after the Russian takeover, Ukraine has alleged that over 500 Russian soldiers have entered the plant and they are torturing the staff.

Earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had expressed "grave concern" at the situation in the six-reactor plant, the largest in Europe. The Russian troops had taken over the plant last week.

Russian forces shelled the Zaporizhzhia plant in the early hours of Friday, damaging a walkway between two of its six reactors, and starting a fire in a nearby building used for training. Following this, some of the reactors had to be shut down and others were put on low power.

Ukraine's Energy Minister German Galushchenko claimed the Russian forces have compelled the plant's management to record an appeal, which they are planning to use for propaganda purposes.

"Russia's propaganda machine aims to create one more fake for its citizens and the international community in an attempt to justify its crimes," the minister said in a Facebook post.

Galushchenko alleged that the Russian soldiers were torturing the staff inside the plant, which houses over 50 units of heavy equipment. "The employees of the station are physically and psychologically exhausted," he added.

The minister urged Ukraine's "international partners to take all measures to withdraw Russian occupation forces from captured nuclear objects and close the sky over Ukraine."

"A breakdown at a nuclear power plant due to the use of weapons by Russian troops will lead to a disaster for the whole of Europe. The responsibility for this will be entirely on Russia. If a breakdown happens, Europeans will be forced to switch the comfort of their homes to radiation shelters. We must stop Russia's nuclear terrorism together. We must do it now – until it's too late," the post read.

However, International Business Times could not independently verify Galushchenko's claims.

The minister's allegation comes amid reports that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is no longer transmitting data to the UN's atomic watchdog. The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said "the remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at the Chernobyl NPP had been lost."

"The Agency is looking into the status of safeguards monitoring systems in other locations in Ukraine and will provide further information soon," the agency added.