‘Madness!’ UN slams nuclear plant blasts
KYIV: The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has denounced “targeted” strikes at Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, calling for a “stop to this madness”, as Kyiv and Moscow traded blame.
Ukraine meanwhile dismissed Russian accusations that it had executed surrendering soldiers.
“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” said a statement from Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable.
“Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately,” he added. “As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire.”
There were more than a dozen blasts on the weekend, some of which a team of experts from the agency on site had themselves seen, the IAEA said in a statement.
Speaking to French broadcaster BFMTV, Mr Grossi was clear that the strikes on the plant were no accident.
“The people who are doing this know where they are hitting. It is absolutely deliberate, targeted.”
The IAEA is to send a team of experts to the plant, which is the biggest nuclear facility in Europe and currently controlled by Russian troops.
Ukraine meanwhile dismissed Russian accusations that its soldiers had killed Russian troops as they were surrendering, in what Moscow has described as a “war crime”.
Extracts from the video footage in question showed that in fact, Russian forces had used a “staged surrender” to open fire on Ukrainian soldiers, Dmytro Lubinets, the parliament’s commissioner for human rights, said.
“In this case, persons among the Russian servicemen cannot be considered prisoners of war, but are those who are fighting and committing treachery,” he added.
“Returning fire is not a war crime. On the contrary, those who want to use the protection of international law to kill must be punished.”
Video footage circulated on Russian social media last week purported to show the bodies of Russian servicemen killed after surrendering to Ukrainian troops.
A UN spokesperson said it was “aware of the videos” and was “looking into them”.
It cams as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there had been nearly 400 Russian attacks in the east of the country alone on Sunday.
The toughest battles, he said, were in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as in neighbouring Luhansk.