"We're kept at gunpoint by Russians"

Staff at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have described to the BBC being kept at gunpoint while Russian troops use it as a military base.
Moscow has also recently been accused of using the plant "as a shield" while its troops launch rockets from there towards nearby locations.
However, according to the governor of Dnipropetrovsk, the Russians fired more than 120 rockets at the city of Nikopol, which is separated from Zaporizhzhia only by the Dnieper River. Some shells fell near the spent nuclear fuel storage facility, which houses 174 containers of highly radioactive material, and the UN nuclear watchdog said there was a "real risk of a nuclear catastrophe" unless the fighting stops and inspectors are allowed access.
Ukraine and Russia have been blaming each other of causing a nuclear disaster for days. The picture is murky, but the risks are crystal clear, warns the BBC.
The nuclear plant worker therefore told the BBC his side of the story. About the threats they experience every day, more and more frequent random kidnappings, as well as their own fears of potential "radioactive contamination of the wider region" or a nuclear disaster... Svitlana and Mykola are the code names of BBC sources, to protect them from very likely Russian retaliation.
"My working day is a constant stress," says Svitlana, who's contacting BBC reporters via text message.
She and her fellow worker Mykola can only use Russian SIM cards now and signal is very limited. We're not using their real names for their safety.
"I can't work like I used to. Last week I haven't even been able to come to my workplace - it's dangerous. On Saturday, there was shelling of the nitrogen-oxygen station, which caused a fire. By some miracle, the people...

Continue reading on: