Los Angeles Times

Blasts again rock Ukrainian nuclear plant

Atomic agency experts at site report hearing more than a dozen explosions.

- By John Leicester and Hanna Arhirova Leicester and Arhirova write for the Associated Press.

KYIV, Ukraine — Powerful explosions shook Ukraine’s Zaporizhzh­ia region, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the global nuclear watchdog said Sunday, calling for “urgent measures to help prevent a nuclear accident” in the Russian-occupied facility.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the Internatio­nal Atomic Energy Agency, said multiple explosions — on Saturday evening and Sunday morning — abruptly ended a period of relative calm around the nuclear facility that has been the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces since Russia invaded Feb. 24.

Fears of a nuclear catastroph­e have been at the forefront since Russian troops occupied the plant during the early days of the war. Continued fighting has raised the specter of a disaster.

In renewed shelling both close to and at the site, IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzh­ia facility reported hearing more than a dozen blasts within a short period Sunday morning and could see some explosions from their windows, the statement said.

Several buildings, systems and equipment at the plant — none of them crucial for the plant’s nuclear safety — were damaged in the shelling, the IAEA said, citing the plant’s management.

Still, Grossi said reports of the shelling were “extremely disturbing.” He added: “Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediatel­y.”

“As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” Grossi said, and appealed to both sides to urgently implement a nuclear safety and security zone around the facility.

Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power grid and other key infrastruc­ture from the air, causing widespread blackouts for millions of Ukrainians amid frigid weather. That has left Ukrainians without heat, power or water as snow blankets the capital, Kyiv, and other cities.

Ukraine’s state nuclear power operator said Russian forces were behind the shelling of the Zaporizhzh­ia plant. Energoatom said in a Telegram post Sunday that the targeted and damaged equipment in the facility is consistent with the Kremlin’s strategy “to damage or destroy as much of Ukraine’s energy infrastruc­ture as possible as” winter sets in.

The most recent strikes damaged the system that would enable the plant’s power units 5 and 6 to start producing electricit­y again for Ukraine, the power operator said. It listed chemical desalinate­d water storage tanks and a steam generator purge system as being damaged in the shelling Sunday, although the full extent of the damage is still being assessed.

The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectora­te of Ukraine decided to bring the two units to a minimally controlled power level to obtain steam, which is crucial in winter for ensuring the safety of power units, the plant’s staff, the local population and the environmen­t, Energoatom said.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenko­v blamed Ukrainian forces, saying they shelled the power plant twice Sunday. He also said two shells hit near the power lines supplying the plant with electricit­y.

Elsewhere in the Zaporizhzh­ia region, Russian forces shelled civilian infrastruc­ture in about a dozen communitie­s, destroying 30 homes, the Ukrainian presidency said Sunday.

In the central Dnipropetr­ovsk region, one person was wounded and 20 buildings damaged in shelling of Nikopol, a city across the river from the Zaporizhzh­ia plant, the report said. Three districts in the northern Kharkiv region — Kupiansk, Chuhuiv and Izyum — also came under Russian artillery fire in the last 24 hours.

In the eastern Donetsk region, Russian shelling killed one person, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.

The situation in the southern region of Kherson “remains difficult,” the report said, citing the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces. Russian forces fired tank shells, rockets and other artillery on the city of Kherson, which was recently liberated by Ukrainian forces, and settlement­s in the area.

Shelling late Saturday struck an oil depot in Kherson, igniting a huge fire that sent black billowing smoke into the air. Russian troops also shelled people lining up to get bread in the Kherson regional town of Bilozerka, wounding five, the report said.

In the city of Kherson — which still has little power, heat or water — more than 80 tons of humanitari­an aid have been sent, said local administra­tor Yaroslav Yanushevyc­h, including a UNICEF shipment of 1,500 winter outfits for children, two generators and water.

Also on Sunday, a funeral was held in eastern Poland for the second of the two men killed in a missile explosion Tuesday. The other man was buried Saturday. Poland and the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizati­on have both said the missile strike appeared to be unintentio­nal and was probably launched by Ukraine as it tried to shoot down Russian missiles or drones.

 ?? Roman Hrytsyna Associated Press ?? SMOKE rises after a Russian attack in the Kherson region Saturday. Russians also shelled people in a bread line in Bilozerka, Ukraine.
Roman Hrytsyna Associated Press SMOKE rises after a Russian attack in the Kherson region Saturday. Russians also shelled people in a bread line in Bilozerka, Ukraine.

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