ZNPP/Illustrative photo
Before the occupation, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) employed about 11,000 people, and currently, it has just over 2,000 employees.
The mayor of the temporarily occupied Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, reported on Ukrainian Radio that since February of this year, occupiers have barred licensed personnel who haven’t signed contracts with the fake company from Rosatom. This has exacerbated an already challenging situation in providing qualified personnel for ZNPP. As a result, the plant is now serviced by a little over 2,000 people, not all of whom are specialists, and not all of whom have prior experience at ZNPP.
Orlov highlighted that before the occupation, the plant had about 11,000 employees. However, most of the staff from the licensed operating unit left for the government-controlled territory of Ukraine.
He described ZNPP as operating as a military base for the third consecutive year, with a mined perimeter and partially mined territory. Both occupation forces and military equipment are located in technological premises. The staff has been subjected to psychological and physical pressure and torture by occupiers, with approximately ten people currently held in occupation dungeons due to their pro-Ukrainian position or other arbitrary reasons.
About 20% of the city’s residents, approximately ten thousand people, remain in Enerhodar. Before the occupation, the city had a population of 53,000.
Occupiers are reportedly «nationalizing» abandoned apartments and resettling personnel brought in from Russia. However, not many people from remote parts of the Russian mainland are willing to come to Enerhodar due to its proximity to the front line. The mayor highlighted that specialists brought in by force are sent on short-term assignments and then returned to their permanent places of residence. Despite these measures, there is still a shortage of staff, both professionally and in terms of numbers.