Statement by Aleksei Likhachev regarding the attack on the NE zone 'Busher' and the evacuation of Russian personnel.

The General Director of the Russian state corporation "Rosatom", Aleksej Lihačov, has spoken out regarding the dramatic escalation of the situation at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran. We publish his statement about direct strikes on the plant's territory and the urgent evacuation of engineers in full.

“The situation at the Bushehr nuclear power plant site continues to develop along a negative scenario. On Tuesday evening, at 21:00 Moscow time, a direct strike was carried out again on the territory in the immediate vicinity of the operating power unit No. 1. Fortunately, there were no casualties.”

Yesterday we decided to prepare the third phase of staff evacuation. The group started this morning by road transport toward the Iran-Armenian border. In the near future, transport for two more groups will be organized.

Temporarily, until the situation normalizes, we are reducing the number of our specialists on-site to a minimum. The health and lives of our people are an absolute priority for all.

Let us remind you that to date there have been two registered strikes within the Bushehr nuclear power plant's perimeter, and that earlier, during the very beginning of the conflict, Rosatom had already evacuated part of the plant's staff. We also believe that this information is very troubling because any direct attack on the reactor building and the reactor itself would have far-reaching consequences.