On August 18, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces of the RF Armed Forces, stated that there were no Russian military equipment at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, and the Ministry of Defense was even ready to submit high-resolution photographs to the IAEA to confirm. Kirillov noted:

“We know that in the presence of a large number of military and commercial foreign satellites, the same information can be presented to the world community by the American side.”

But a week later, the following message appeared on the official TASS Telegram channel:

"The servicemen of the Russian Guard detained two employees of the Zaporizhzhya NPP, who were transmitting data to the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the location of personnel and equipment on the territory of the station."

Since the location of the power plant’s equipment is already well known to the Ukrainian side, it remains to be assumed that this is precisely the very military equipment that is not there, regardless of whether these two employees really transmitted information to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

On August 8, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak told The Insider that he was carrying out mining on the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar, and also storing shells of “different capacities and different capacities” right in the shops. On August 12, BBC correspondent in Ukraine James Waterhouse published an article about the situation at the ZNPP. Its employees reported that Russian troops were using the station as a military base and were holding them hostage.