Lack of staff looms at key nuclear plant

Europe’s largest nuclear plant could be left with a "catastrophic lack of qualified personnel" as Russia plans to relocate more than 3,000 Ukrainian staff at the facility, Ukraine’s atomic energy company warned.

Hi, it's Julius with an update on Russia and Ukraine.

Energoatom said that even those Ukrainian workers forced to sign "shameful" contracts are being evacuated, making the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia unsafe even though it is currently not operating.

"The fastest possible de-occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the expulsion of the (Russians) and the transfer of control over the power plant to its legitimate Ukrainian operator, Energoatom, is the only way to end the Russian mess at the ZNPP and guarantee its future safety," Energoatom said in a statement.

A Russian-appointed deputy prime minister of the region, Andrey Kozenko, said as many as 70,000 civilians will be voluntarily moved out of the region because of risks from artillery shelling. Ukraine’s National Resistance Center says Russian-installed officials are shutting down schools, preparing buses and appointing officials to oversee the evacuation.

More on the Ukraine-Russia crisis:

• Russia is considering "retaliatory measures" in response to a U.S. refusal to issue visas to Russian journalists for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's trip to New York to attend U.N. Security Council meetings last month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tuesday.
• Visual journalist Arman Soldin was killed by a rocket strike as he reported with Agence France-Presse colleagues from Ukrainian positions in Chasiv Yar, the news agency said.