Hundreds of Ukrainians are blocking an access road to a nuclear power plant near Enerhodar to prevent invading Russian forces from taking control.
Videos posted to Facebook show a large crowd on the road leading to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Many in the group were carrying Ukrainian flags, and others parked garbage trucks and other vehicles on the road to block the way.
The videos were published after Russia informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its military forces had taken control of the territory around the power plant, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Tuesday.
Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov says his constituents were banding together to keep the city out of Russian hands.
“We conveyed the position of our city and its residents that the ZNPP is under reliable protection, that its workers and residents of Enerhodar are under Ukrainian flags,” Orlov said on his Facebook page. “All municipal services are working in emergency mode. Nobody is going to surrender the city. People are determined.”
Enerhodar is located in southeastern Ukraine, about 150 miles north of the Crimean peninsula — the region of the country that Russia annexed in 2014.