Russian Soldiers Abduct Nuclear Power Plant Official, Ukraine Says

Russian forces have abducted a Ukrainian nuclear power plant official, according to officials in charge of the plant.

News of the alleged abduction came on Tuesday, from a post to the social media platform, Telegram, by Energoatom, the company that runs the nuclear plant. According to the post, Ihor Khavshnin, head of the environmental protection service of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, the Kyiv Post reported.

"They took him to an unknown destination," Energoatom's post read. "It is still impossible to locate Kvashnin ... The invaders destabilize the situation at the occupied power plant and resort to new methods of terror. They have started to abduct the personnel from the top management positions at Zaporizhzhia NPP."

The plant is in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast region of Ukraine, the same region as the city of Melitopol, which became one of the first major Ukrainian cities to fall under Russian occupation. Following an intense conflict beginning February 25, the region, including the power plant, came under Russian control on March 1. It is also strategically positioned along the Dnipro River, not far inland from the Black Sea.

In early June, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov claimed that Russian forces had abandoned almost all military checkpoints around the city, following a considerable offensive from Ukrainian forces.

Nevertheless, conflict has continued in the region, particularly around the power plant, which remains occupied. The Kyiv Post reported that Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using the Zaporizhzhia plant to store various weapons, including missile systems. They have also been accused of using the plant as a site from which to shell other parts of the country with artillery.

Originally built by the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, the Zaporizhzhia plant is the largest of its kind in all of Europe and is also the 10th-largest in the world, behind major plants in countries like China, Japan, South Korea and Canada.

Around 500 Russian soldiers are occupying the Zaporizhzhia plant, Energoatom President Petro Kotin told the Kyiv Post. Kotin also said the conflict surrounding the plant remains "intense."

"The occupiers bring their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they already shell the other side of the river Dnipro and the territory of Nikopol," Kotin said. "They physically control the perimeter. The occupiers' heavy machinery and trucks with weapons and explosives remain on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant."

Newsweek has reached out to Russian officials for comment.