The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declared the suspicions to the occupying head of the Zaporizhzhia NPP (ZNPP) Yurii Chernichuk, Russian blogger and designer Artemiy Lebedev, and the former deputy chief of the stationʼs paramilitary guard unit.
Before the occupation, Chernichuk was the deputy chief engineer, and in his new "position" he forced Ukrainian nuclear workers to sign contracts with Rosatom and helped the Russians in their attempts to connect the nuclear power plant to the Russian energy system. A traitor from the guard handed over the property of the unit to the Russians. Last July, Lebedev went to the NPP and took pictures on the roof of the station. Lebedev called visiting the captured territories of Ukraine "small joys of a full life."
They received suspicions under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- the pseudo-head of the nuclear power plant — Part 1 of Art. 111-2 (assistance to the aggressor state);
- Artemiy Lebedev — part 3 of the art. 436-2 (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants);
- former deputy head of the departmental paramilitary guard detachment — Part 1 of Art. 111-2 and Part 3 of Art. 436-2.
Lebedev faces up to 8 years in prison, and Chernichuk and the third suspect — up to 12 years.
- On March 4, 2022, the occupiers captured Energodar and the ZNPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the third largest in the world.