The man embroiled in Russia and Ukraine’s propaganda war over a nuclear plant

Andriy Tuz, a former employee of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, poses after an interview with Reuters in Geneva, Switzerland, August 18, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA (Reuters) - A former deputy spokesman at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant who helped tell the world that Russian troops had seized the strategic site, is now in exile, no longer in his job and, according to a document from his ex-employer, is suspected by Ukrainian intelligence of collaborating with Russia.

Andriy Tuz’s journey from Ukrainian patriot to pariah included an encounter with Russian intelligence and a June video - which he said he was forced to record after being tortured by Russian intelligence officers - where he states previous public comments he’d made about Russia shelling the plant were false. “Now I understand that the information was not true,” he said in the video.