Rescuers of Ukraine’s Emergencies Ministry take part in an exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 17, in anticipation of a possible nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located near the city. The factory in southern Ukraine was occupied by Russia in the early days of the war.
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images
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Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images
Rescuers of Ukraine’s Emergencies Ministry take part in an exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 17, in anticipation of a possible nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located near the city. The factory in southern Ukraine was occupied by Russia in the early days of the war.
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images
KYIV, Ukraine – The International Atomic Energy Agency says a team is heading towards the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the first inspection team to be joined since Russian forces took over the complex in southern Ukraine in 2014. early March. The mission will assess the safety and security of the plant, as well as the condition of the mostly Ukrainian employees inside.
Andriy Tuz, the factory’s former head of PR, told NPR: “It’s getting harder and harder for employees to provide safety. “The crowd was scared and wanted to leave.”
Residents receive tablets containing iodine in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Aug. 26. A mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant this week after when it was temporarily knocked down and shelling was reported in the area.
Andriy Andriyenko / AP
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Andriy Andriyenko / AP
Residents receive tablets containing iodine in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Aug. 26. A mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant this week after when it was temporarily knocked down and shelling was reported in the area.
Andriy Andriyenko / AP
Tuz, 32, is currently in Switzerland, but still keeps in touch with former colleagues. He said that the only thing to do is to demilitarize the complex immediately. Experts have made it clear that a potential disaster is imminent if shelling near the plant continues – which both the Russians and the Ukrainians blame each other.
Tuz witnessed first-hand the takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on March 3.
Screenshot taken from a video showing the view of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a fire following clashes around the site in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 4.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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Screenshot taken from a video showing the view of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a fire following clashes around the site in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 4.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“I was in [Enerhodar, the city closest to the plant] and I heard explosions, they sounded like fireworks,” Tuz said.
At the time, the 10-year veteran of the complex was the main spokesman for the plant and continued to work for 4 months after it was occupied. At first, he said, the Russians shunned the employees. But as the months passed, they began to interfere with each other.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” he said. “It affects families who feel threatened, and it’s emotionally difficult for everyone.”
Tuz says the Russians also tried to lure him into spreading misinformation about what was happening at the plant – but he resisted, sparking outrage among his occupiers. When he did not cooperate, he said that he was not allowed to do this work anymore.
By mid-June, the shelves in Enerhodar stores were empty and pharmacies were out of stock. Tuz decides to leave Ukraine with his mother and embark on a journey that will take him through Russian-occupied Crimea and to Russia, where he says he has been detained numerous times and endured abuse and torture. body. According to him, Tuz’s documents were also confiscated, forcing him to stay in Russia longer.
He and his mother finally made it to Georgia. The couple will then eventually drive to Switzerland, where he lives in safety – but without a job or permanent home.
The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. The details of Tuz’s experience in Russia could not be independently verified.
Highlights of the interview
Andriy Tuz in Kyiv in 2021.
Andriy Tuz
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Andriy Tuz
Andriy Tuz in Kyiv in 2021.
Andriy Tuz
On the day the factory was occupied
It’s very scary. We don’t know what to do next. Since the beginning of the war, most of the people of Enerhodar had thought that this city would be the safest place in Ukraine. We may normally, no one would have imagined there was a nuclear plant on fire, or anywhere next to a power plant.
Working at the factory under Russian occupation
During the first days and first months the army was not allowed to come to work or near personnel. But then the Russian soldiers began to make encirclements and made their way to the workplace of the Ukrainian employees. Armed Russian soldiers are everywhere, and some have been kidnapped to cooperate with Russia. Therefore, the workers have suffered a lot of psychological pressure.
When I was at the power plant, the Russian military groups did not coordinate with each other. More than once several groups have tried to shoot each other – and these cases are not uncommon. I also saw a lot of military vehicles entering the power plant; Tanks and military vehicles are constantly moving. Sometimes they are next to the power units. The staff didn’t know what to do, they had laps to do, they needed to check the equipment, but there was a tank right in front of them.
When escaping through Crimea
On June 19th, we left the city around 5am. There are 15 armed checkpoints where [the Russian military and Russian-backed Donetsk officials] saw your document on the way to the administrative border of Crimea. On the way we saw a lot of wheat being brought out of Ukraine by the Russians and heavy artillery pouring in. We arrived at the border at 11 a.m. and then I was taken to a filtering camp. They do not use force; they were just trying to scare us. I was in the camp, surrounded by a chain link fence, for six hours. I let go when they realized I was not a nationalist and had no connection to the military.
While imprisoned in Sochi
Then we were stopped in [Russian] Magri town of the Russian Federal Security Service and I were interrogated again. They searched me, looking for Ukrainian tattoos and they also searched my car. I was then brought to Sochi by the Russian FSB on June 21 and they accused me of having ties to the Azov Battalion. They detained me for three days. They abused and tortured me. Punch, kick, cuff and burn me. They put a plastic bag over my head and bandaged my eyes. I was only released after being forced to film a disinformation video about the power plant, which was broadcast in Russia. On the third day, I was released, but they confiscated my documents, forcing me and my mother to stay in Russia for another 20 days.
Stay in touch with old colleagues
[The workers] were asked to stay at their workplace overtime during shelling; they don’t have a normal work schedule. And now much less people are available, they have no backup in case someone gets sick. There are enough employees, but it’s much harder for them to do their job. Those who stay and work to ensure nuclear safety under such pressure, they are the real heroes.
