Occupation authorities start evacuating residents of Enerhodar – IAEA

Experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency, stationed at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, reported that the invaders started evacuating the local residents of Enerhodar.

This was reported on the agency’s website.

IAEA officials emphasized that they are closely monitoring the situation, as the majority of ZNPP personnel live in the city.

Currently, the power plant’s personnel remain on site, but this situation creates tension and complicates conditions for workers and their families.

They also noted an increase in military presence and activity in close proximity to the ZNPP.

The IAEA experts on the ground report hearing regular shelling, including in the evening of Friday, May 5.

“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous. I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the Agency.

The Agency also added that their specialists were not able to visit Enerhodar in recent days but received information that the evacuation is “part of a wider temporary evacuation in the region reportedly announced on Friday.”

In addition, they were told that ZNPP operational personnel were not being evacuated and were “doing everything necessary to ensure nuclear safety.”

The morning summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on May 7 reported that the invaders were evacuating local residents from Enerhodar in the direction of the cities of Berdyansk and Prymorsk to local recreation centers.

“People with Russian passports are subject to evacuation. Moreover, primarily those who accepted Russian citizenship in the first months of the occupation fall,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

On May 5, the occupation authorities announced the evacuation of the population in the Zaporizhzhia region.

According to Andryi Kozenko, the so-called Deputy Prime Minister of the occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, the plan is to move up to 70 thousand people.

The invaders explain this decision by the possible start of the counteroffensive operation of the Ukrainian army in the region.

They plan to move the residents of the following settlements: Tymoshivka, Smyrnovo, Tarasivka, Orlyanske, Molochansk, Kuibysheve, Pryshyb, Tokmak, Mala Bilozerka, Vasylivka, Velyka Bilozerka, Dniprorudne, Mykhailivka, Kamyanka Dniprovska, Enerhodar, Polohy, Konski Rozdoly, and Rozivka.