Kyiv accused of strike at nuclear plant on eve of UN team’s visit
US calls for demilitarised zone around Zaporizhzhia as Russia claims Ukrainian attack damaged fuel depot
RUSSIA has said that a Ukrainian missile strike punched a hole in the roof of a fuel depot at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as a UN watchdog team prepares to visit the site this week.
New satellite images show recent damage to the roof of a building adjacent to several of the nuclear reactors, though both sides have claimed it is the other which is firing weapons.
Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, is occupied by Russian forces, but operated by Ukrainian workers.
People have been killed in fighting and bombing nearby, while the plant itself was briefly knocked offline last week, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. The detailed pictures, shared with
by Maxar Technologies, also show a group of armoured personnel carriers positioned along a road near the reactors as well as a couple of brush fires outside of the main power plant facilities.
Ukraine has alleged that Russia is essentially holding the plant hostage, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it.
The White House said yesterday that Russia should agree to a demilitarised zone around the plant. John Kirby, a US National Security Council spokesman, said that a controlled shutdown of the plant would be the safest option.
Meanwhile, Russian officials in Zaporizhzhia accused Ukraine of “continuously firing” on the plant, saying they were using Us-made M777 howitzers, the TASS news agency reported.
Reports of the strike came as the UN said that it was sending a mission to the plant.
The team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was due to arrive in Kyiv last night.
“It is expected that the mission will start work at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the coming days,” Oleg Nikolenko, a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman, wrote on Facebook.
Fears have intensified that the fighting could cause a radiation leak. The dangers are so high that officials have begun handing out anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents, but so far, radiation levels at the facility, which has six reactors, have been reported to be normal.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, warned of Russian attempts to cover up their military use of the plant.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said in Stockholm that he expects the IAEA mission to produce “a clear statement of facts, of violation of all nuclear safety protocols”. He added: “We know that Russia is putting not only Ukraine, but also the entire world at the risk of nuclear accident.”
Ukraine reported shelling in Nikopol, the city across the Dnipro River from the power plant, and said one person was killed and five others were wounded. In Enerhodar, a few miles from the plant, the city’s Ukrainian mayor, Dmytro Orlov, blamed Russian shelling for injuries to at least 10 people.
In Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russia would ensure security of the IAEA mission and called on other countries to put pressure on Ukraine to stop shelling the plant.