‘Playing with fire’, says IAEA on N-plant attacks
LONDON/LVIV: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has warned that whoever fired artillery at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “playing with fire” as his team prepared to inspect it on Monday for damage from the weekend strikes.
The attacks on Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in the south of Ukraine came as battles raged in the east, where Russian forces pounded Ukrainian positions along the front line, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
The shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station follows setbacks for Russian forces in the Kherson region in the south and a Russian response that has included a barrage of missile strikes across the country, many on power facilities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said more than a dozen blasts shook the nuclear plant late on Saturday and on Sunday. IAEA head Rafael Grossi said the attacks were extremely disturbing and completely unacceptable.
“Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” Grossi said in a statement.
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the shelling of the facility, as they have done repeatedly in recent months after attacks on it or near it.
Kremlin: No talk of new round of mobilisation
The Kremlin said on Monday it was not discussing calling up more Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine through a second round of mobilisation.
Russia called up more than 300,000 reservists to support what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine in a controversial mobilisation drive launched in September.
Asked by reporters if Russia was planning a new round of mobilisation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “I can’t speak for the defence ministry, but there are no discussions in the Kremlin about this.”
The Kremlin also said that it would bring to justice those responsible for the alleged execution of Russian prisoners of war (POW) in Ukraine, and that it would do everything possible to draw attention to what it has called a war crime.
Russia last week accused Ukrainian soldiers of executing more than 10 Russian POWs, citing a video circulating on Russian social media.
“There is no doubt that Russia itself will be looking for the perpetrators of this crime. They must be found and punished,” Peskov told reporters.