Law enforcers served notice of suspicion to Eduard Atakishchev, deputy director of the Russian-seized Zaporizhzhya NPP, and his subordinate, chief engineer Andriy Gorbunov. On the instructions of the Gauleiters, the plant was disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid. This was reported on Tuesday by the SBU press service, UNN reports.
The Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office have collected evidence against two Russian citizens who organized the disconnection of Zaporizhzhia NPP from the unified energy system of our country. We are talking about Eduard Atakishchev, deputy director of the seized nuclear power plant, and his subordinate, chief engineer Andriy Horbunov
Details
According to the investigation, prior to their "appointment," the Russians worked at the Rostov NPP.
From there, they arrived in the temporarily occupied territory in southern Ukraine and in early October 2022 joined the management team of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
There, the criminals were engaged in "integrating" the power facility into the structure of Rosatom and connecting the plant's technological capacities to the Russian energy system.
The perpetrators also incited Ukrainian nuclear workers to cooperate with the aggressor and enter into "contracts" with the occupation administration of the nuclear power plant.
If he refused, they threatened him with persecution by the Russian repressive authorities.
Based on the collected evidence, the SBU investigators served both suspicion notices in absentia under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- ч. 2, Art. 28, Art. 438, Part 1 (violation of the laws and customs of war);
- ч. 4, Art. 27, Art. 28, Art. 111 (incitement to commit high treason under martial law by prior conspiracy by a group of persons).
Comprehensive measures are currently underway to bring the perpetrators to justice for crimes against our state, the SBU added.