A court found two major generals and four battalion tactical group commanders of Rosgvardia guilty of violating the laws and customs of war and sentenced each in absentia to 12 years in prison for shelling the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in 2022, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced.
In a Telegram post on Tuesday, the Prosecutor General noted that Russian troops stormed the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant on the night of March 3-4, 2022. "Under the cover of tanks and heavy armored vehicles, the occupiers shelled the plant’s territory for several hours, specifically firing in the direction of the nuclear reactors and the spent nuclear fuel storage facility," he recalled.
According to Kravchenko, despite warnings about the risk of a man-made disaster, the shelling continued.
"A fire broke out on the plant’s premises, damaging critical networks and communications. Russian military personnel prevented rescuers from extinguishing the fire, and Zaporizhia NPP workers remained trapped at their workstations," the Prosecutor General emphasized.
Kravchenko reported that experts confirmed that the occupiers’ actions could have led to the destruction of the reactors’ protective barriers and a large-scale radioactive release—a scenario that could have affected not only Ukraine but also other European countries.
"The court established that the assault was led by two major generals and four battalion tactical group commanders of the Russian National Guard. They coordinated the units’ actions and ensured the use of weapons during the seizure of the plant," the Ukrainian Prosecutor General noted.
Based on the public indictment filed by prosecutors from the Zaporizhia Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the court found all six guilty of violating the laws and customs of war. Each was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The sentence was handed down in a special trial.
