The Russian invaders have blocked the transmission of information from the Automated Radiation Monitoring System (ARMS) of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant they have occupied, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine reports.

"The Ukrainian regulator informed the IAEA about this case, which threatens the safety at the Zaporizhia NPP, but did not receive notifications about possible planned measures from the Agency to resolve this situation," Oleh Korikov, head of the nuclear regulator, is quoted in a message on the regulator's Facebook page in Friday.

In general, it is noted that the situation at the Zaporizhia NPP is deteriorating every day - the occupiers are exerting violent pressure on the ZNPP personnel, at the same time, representatives of Rosatom are recruiting personnel who do not have the appropriate qualifications.

As the regulator described the situation, in particular, due to the dismantling or theft by Russian invaders of important elements of systems, the disabling of part of computer equipment, significant efforts and resources are required for the restoration of the plant's physical protection system. The occupiers have almost completely degraded the system of emergency preparedness and response at the ZNPP, the regulator added.

"In order to restore nuclear and radiation safety, it is necessary to immediately withdraw the Russian military and Russian personnel, in accordance with the resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors GOV/2022/17, GOV/2022/58, GOV/2022/71," the inspectorate said in the statement.

They noted that the situation at ZNPP was the subject of discussion during Korikov's online meeting with representatives of the European Commission, the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG), the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC), the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

As reported, ARMS, consisting of a number of types of high-tech equipment, performs the functions of operational radiation monitoring.