Nuclear plant is shelled in Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other after Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant was shelled yesterday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of committing “an open, brazen crime” and “an act of terror” after shells hit a high-voltage power line at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
It was captured by Russian forces in March, but is still run by Ukrainian technicians.
He said: “It is a purely a security issue. Those who create nuclear threats to other nations are certainly not capable of using nuclear technologies safely.
“Russia should bear responsibility for the very fact of creating a threat to the nuclear power plant.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said: “The possible consequences of hitting an operating reactor are equivalent to the use of an atomic bomb.”
But Russia’s defence ministry claimed Ukraine’s armed forces were to blame saying only sheer luck avoided a radiation leak.
The news comes as Russia moved troops and weapons towards the southwest of Ukraine as the war enters a “new phase”, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Officials said that Russian Battalion Tactical Groups of up to 1,000 troops were being deployed to the Crimean peninsula.