Russian occupiers staying at the site of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) force the plant workers to drain the cooling pools, Energoatom reported on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

"In order to relieve themselves of responsibility for committing acts of nuclear terrorism, rushists resort to forceful coercion against Ukrainian nuclear workers. Now they are bullying and torturing the workers of the plant's hydro department to come up with a justification for the need to drain these pools for the management of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant and Energoatom," the company said.

In particular, as the company informed, the invaders severely beat diver of the ZNPP hydro department Andriy Honcharuk, who was taken to the hospital in the city of Enerhodar on June 29, 2022, with numerous injuries.

As reported, the Russian occupiers are preparing a provocation accusing Ukrainian nuclear workers of storing weapons on the territory of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

"For this, several workers were detained and tortured to demand from them a confession, or rather, slandering themselves, that allegedly back in March, they dropped some kind of weapon into the concrete basins of the cooling pools at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant: explosives or shells," Energoatom noted earlier.

As the company explained, under this pretext, the invaders insist on draining the cooling pools – allegedly to check its basins – and stopping the pumps supplying water to the security systems of power units.

"If this happens, then the security systems of Europe's largest nuclear power plant will be left without cooling, which is a serious violation and may threaten nuclear safety. In addition, such work is not advisable to carry out in the warm season due to the risk of overheating and equipment failure," the company warned.

However, Ukrainian nuclear scientists are most concerned about the lack of control over the actions of the occupiers, who, under the guise of "carrying out a check," can throw anything into concrete basins: explosives, unexploded shells, and other weapons.

According to the company, later the Russian occupiers may blame the ZNPP workers or its defenders for this and make this a formal reason for inviting the IAEA to the plant and presenting these "facts."

"We emphasize that any weapon found on the territory of the ZNPP is the weapon of the invaders, which they use for nuclear terrorism and threats to the whole world with a new terrible catastrophe," Energoatom stated.