(FiveNation.com)- Russian soldiers have been killed and injured in a mysterious ‘unexplained incident’ at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Enerhodar, where the station is based, said the troops were so scared that they ran around in a panic, with some now in intensive care in hospital. The cause of the sudden hysteria is unknown, although Putin’s men had been using the power plant to store many weapons, including missile systems.
On Friday, the president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom had warned that the situation was ‘extremely tense,’ with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the site.
Petro Kotin said 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. 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.
According to Mayor Orlov, nine soldiers were taken to the local hospital with varying severity.
He said one was brought in severe conditions and put in intensive care. Some have died, but we cannot name their exact number at the moment.’
Orlov said they were so frightened that they ran around the station’s territory in a panic and blocked two shifts of operational personnel at the plant for a very long time instead of changing shifts as they were supposed to.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which creates around 20 percent of Ukraine’s electricity, was seized by Russian forces on March 4, and they now control the administrative buildings and the station.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence claimed Russia increasingly relies on ‘convicts and blacklisted individuals’ to plug gaps in its frontline forces.
With 50,000 Russian troops believed dead, wounded, or captured since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin has contracted the Wagner Group, a mercenary firm, to supply soldiers.
But even the group’s resources are running low after fighting in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Russia has made territorial gains but at a high cost. Yesterday the MoD said that the fighting had inflicted heavy casualties on the group.
Wagner is lowering recruitment standards and hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals while minimal training is available to recruits. This will likely impact the future operational effectiveness of the group and will reduce its value as a prop to the regular Russian forces.
Critics see the recruitment of prisoners as ‘frontline cannon fodder as a sign of desperation by Russia.
A source told prison rights group gulagu.net that inmates are waiting for a chat with Wagner Group recruiters. About 300 inmates agreed to go.
This jail has 1,350 convicts, including murderers.
