Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register March 25 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s nuclear authority released a video on Friday of four Russian guards being said to be accompanying a supply of fuel, apparently embarrassing as they made statements criticizing Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The authorities, Energoatom, told its Telegram channel that the men had accompanied a shipment of Russian fuel rods to Ukraine’s Rivne nuclear power plant last month. Russia’s nuclear power plant, Rosatom, has issued a statement calling for “the immediate and safe return of workers to their homes,” according to Russia’s RIA news agency. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The video, which has obvious cuts, shows the four employees sitting behind a table and talking non-stop in low voices to identify themselves as Rosatom employees. They explain that they arrived in Ukraine on February 22 with the fuel data for the Rivne plant and say that they completed their contractual work on March 17. Three of the men make statements criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while one looks repeatedly to the side of the camera as he speaks. One says the men have seen for themselves how their compatriots killed children and mothers. Another says the men do not understand how Russian officers could give orders to shoot at nuclear power plants. “We do not want to be involved in this or have anything to do with it,” he said. “After everything we have seen, we are afraid to return.” Russia sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine on February 24 in a “special operation” to weaken its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and uproot people it called dangerous nationalists. He says he is not targeting civilians and that the fighting and apparent bombing around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was the result of a Ukrainian “provocation”. Rosatom said the men had surrendered on February 23 and that Energoatom had said they were being driven back to Russia by Ukrainian SBU officers. Rosatom said it had not returned by Friday. Energoatom did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Reuters. Writes Kevin Liffey. Edited by: Daniel Wallis Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
