Since the beginning of the occupation of the city of Energodar and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), the Russian occupiers have been systematically abducting and torturing employees of the ZNPP.
This is evidenced by the Truth Hounds study of Ukrainian documentarians and investigators of international crimes.
Researchers interviewed witnesses and victims of these crimes, analyzed photos and videos, documents, and collected data from Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.
Witnesses told Truth Hounds about a whole network of illegal prisons at the ZNPP and Energodar, where civilians are subjected to torture, including beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, mock executions, threats of rape, etc.
The Russians keep dozens of people in overcrowded, small cells designed for 2-4 people. Prisoners are allowed to eat food brought to them by relatives, but those who do not have relatives are forced to beg for food and water from other prisoners.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, since March 2022, the Russians have detained and tortured about a thousand people in Energodar. There is at least one confirmed case when a station employee was tortured to death — Andriy Honcharuk, who worked as a diver.
The Russian state company Rosatom and its management could not help but influence this. The Russian military was constantly present at the occupied ZNPP and imprisoned employees in its premises. All this happened during working hours and on such a scale that it could not help but affect the work of the ZNPP units. In addition, the corporationʼs management maintained constant contact with the Russian contingent at the nuclear plant.
Witnesses interviewed by Truth Hounds report that Rosatom employees were not usually directly involved in the torture, but that it "would not have been possible" without their knowledge. Employees of the Russian Atomic Corporation, together with officers of the FSB of the Russian Federation, held mass "conversations with the employees of the ZNPP". They wanted to intimidate the stationʼs workers and force them to sign new labor contracts with Rosatom.
There are known cases when ZNPP workers were tortured in order to persuade them to cooperate with Rosatom. One of the victims told Truth Hounds that representatives of the Russian occupation forces took him to the forest, severely beat him, kept his head in a plastic bag with fuel, threatened to shoot him and ordered him to dig his own grave. The security forces continued to pursue him and demanded that he cooperate with Rosatom.
- Since March 4, the Zaporizhzhia NPP and the satellite city of the Energodar NPP have been under the occupation of Russian troops.
- After the occupation of the ZNPP, the Russians are constantly putting pressure on the stationʼs employees, there have been recorded cases of staff abductions.
- In October 2022, ZNPP employees were threatened with layoffs if they did not sign labor contracts with Rosatom.