(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Ukraine Update: Nuclear engineer who escaped Russian-occupied plant lays out worst fears [1] [] Date: 2023-06-04 Oleksandr Selyverstov was living a terrible nightmare. He was an engineer in charge of a nuclear reactor at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. And Russian troops were coming. In late February 2022, the Russian military was beginning to close in on the city near the plant, Enerhodar. By the night of March 3rd, they assaulted the nuclear plant; and by 3 o'clock the next morning, they had seized the station. He was supposed to start a shift that morning. But what do you do when war visits your workplace? He remembers specific memories: the shooting, the chaos, the armored vehicle columns. He remembers sitting at his home without any instructions. But he doesn't remember feeling anything. When the fighting paused, he reported to the plant. He knew that his colleagues had been working overtime without rest because they had not been relieved during the intense fight. At a normal job, that means an exhausted workplace. At a nuclear power plant, that means a catastrophic accident waiting to happen. The Russian authorities that took the plant over slowly began ratcheting up pressure on the staff. They were obsessed with loyalty; they began searching everyone; they posted an armed guard at the power plant to keep an eye on the Ukrainians who worked there. "They were putting increasing pressure all the time," Selyverstov said. "You couldn't have anything on you. You could have a pack of cigarettes and a pack of matches... You look at them without understanding what is in their heads. You can easily give some wrong answers. They can beat or not beat you, detain you." People began disappearing from the town. He showed me a video from Enerhodar, which I won’t post, of a car riddled with bullet holes and an apparently dead person at the wheel. One nuclear plant staffer went home from his shift and never came back. The Russian occupation authorities were slowly picking up people they suspected of supporting Ukraine. Another nuclear power plant staffer was beaten to death after refusing to follow orders, Ukrainian authorities said. And the violence was ratcheting up in the city. An explosion in Enerhodar, via a video taken by Oleksandr’s friend. He spent so much time around the nuclear plant and the city that he began to understand what sounds indicated shelling from Ukrainian positions, and what sounds indicated shelling from closer Russian positions nearby. Starting with his understanding of these sounds, Selyverstov said he saw evidence of Russians deliberately shelling their own positions around the nuclear plant. Ukraine and Russia have both accused each other of being behind the explosions. "They need to increase the temperature of a crisis, increase the intensity of the crisis," Selyverstov said of the Russians. "To show the west, the Ukrainians are terrorists -- they're shelling us." Selyverstov remembers one incident he calls, the "silliest, biggest performance" that the Russians ever did, ahead of a delegation visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency. He claims he saw Russians walking around with the wreckage of a missile, trying to find a good place to plant it. And when they did plant it, he said, they accidentally placed it in such a way that it suggested it came from territory that Russians controlled. But as ineffectual as the IAEA was in his eyes, an IAEA delegation inadvertently saved his life. Oleksandr had tried to escape Russian-held territory five times; but as a nuclear plant employee he was turned away at checkpoints, and told to go back home. The Russians were obsessed with appearances, he said, and a long line of cars waiting to leave Russian-held territory would cause them to lose face. So, on his last attempt to escape, he happened to try to leave just before an IAEA delegation was about to pass. Russian checkpoints soldiers hurriedly waved through cars so as to not allow the perception that people were trying desperately to leave. He calls it his “second birthday” — the day he managed to leave that oppressive environment and reach Ukrainian-held territory. The first time he told me that story, he had tears in his eyes as he recounted it. A Ukrainian soldier approached him at a checkpoint marking his freedom. The soldier reached out his fist for a bump. “No,” Oleksandr said, pulling the soldier in for a hug. “Brother!” More from Oleksandr Selyverstov after we go through the news, including what he thinks is the worst case scenario; why he thinks the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s recapture by Ukraine is an important priority; and his tips for Ukraine residents on nuclear safety. Plus, our visit to the Chernobyl museum. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/4/2173224/-Nuclear-engineer-who-escaped-Russian-occupied-plant-lays-out-worst-fears Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/