Blame game ensues over nuke plant strikes

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine traded accusations Monday that each side is shelling Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. Russia claimed that Ukrainian shelling caused a power surge and fire and forced staff to lower output from two reactors, while Ukraine has blamed Russian troops for storing weapons there.

Nuclear experts have warned more shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which was captured by Russia early in the war, is fraught with danger.

The Kremlin echoed that Monday, claiming Kyiv was attacking the plant and urging Western powers to force a stop to that.

“Shelling of the territory of the nuclear plant by the Ukrainian armed forces is highly dangerous,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It’s fraught with catastrophic consequences for vast territories, for the entire Europe.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesman, Andriy Yusov

called on Russia to “make a goodwill gesture and hand over control of the plant to an international commission and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), if not to the Ukrainian military.”

The IAEA is the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog. Russian state media outlets reported on Monday that Moscow would be willing to allow international inspectors access to the site. Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Kyiv supports a U.N. team coming to the nuclear site “as soon as possible.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced support for that idea Monday, saying, “any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing.”

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the attack Sunday caused a power surge and smoke, triggering an emergency shutdown. Fire teams extinguished flames, and the plant’s personnel lowered the output of reactors No. 5 and No. 6 to 500 megawatts, he said.