Russia Builds Combat Positions Around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

JAKARTA - Russian troops have established "battle positions and sandbag formations" over the building housing the reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the UK Ministry of Defense has warned.

It said satellite imagery showed sandbags over "several buildings" at the nuclear power plant - the largest in Europe and one of the 10 largest in the world - over which Russian troops had held control since the early days of the war.

This is the first indication the reactor building has been included in defense planning ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counterattack, the Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence briefing on Twitter.

"Images show that in March 2023, Russian troops had established sandbag fighting positions on the roofs of some of the six reactor buildings at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP)," said a ministry update, reported by The National News April 28.

"Russia has controlled the ZNPP since March 2022. However, this is the first indication that the reactor building is actually being integrated into tactical defense planning."

"Russia has likely built on this position as it grows increasingly concerned about the prospect of a major Ukrainian strike."

"Such a move may very well increase the possibility of damage to ZNPP's security system if fighting occurs in the vicinity of ZNPP," the ministry continued.

"However, direct catastrophic damage to the reactor is unlikely under the most plausible scenario involving infantry weapons as the structure is so heavily reinforced," the update stated.

Other satellite images collected by Reuters show thousands of defensive positions inside Russia and along the Ukrainian front, most heavily defended in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the gateway to the Crimean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, anti-tank ditches near the town of Polohy in occupied southeastern Ukraine stretched for 30 km. These were complemented by rows of "dragon tooth" concrete barricades. Further back were the trenches where the Russian troops would be positioned.

The defenses seen in the satellite images taken by Capella Space are part of a vast network of Russian fortifications sweeping from western Russia through eastern Ukraine and on to Crimea, built in readiness for a major Ukrainian offensive.

Six military experts said the defense, largely built up after Ukraine's rapid advance in the fall, could complicate Ukraine this time and that progress would depend on its ability to carry out complex joint operations effectively.

"These are not numbers for the Ukrainians. Can they do this kind of warfare, combined arms operations?" said Neil Melvin, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).

"Russia has shown they can't do it and they have reverted to their old Soviet methods of attrition," he said.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Kremlin forces of using the nuclear plant as a base from which to fire on neighboring Ukrainian-controlled territory.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials reported that heavy Russian artillery fire hit towns on the west bank of the Dnipro River directly across from the plant.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian energy company Energoatom earlier this month accused Moscow of turning the plant into a "military base, mining all around".

The plant has six reactors, all of which have been shut down over the past year.

"We must do everything not to give terrorist states the opportunity to use nuclear power facilities to blackmail Ukraine and the rest of the world," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post this week.