Fears rise of arms at Ukrainian nuke plant

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces have installed multiple rocket launchers at Ukraine’s shut-down Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said Thursday, raising fears that Europe’s largest atomic power station could be used as a base to fire on Ukrainian territory and heightening radiation dangers.

Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement that Russian forces occupying the plant have placed several Grad multiple rocket launchers near one of its six nuclear reactors. It said the systems are located at new “protective structures” the Russians secretly built, “violating all conditions for nuclear and radiation safety.”

The claim could not be independently verified.

The Soviet-built rocket launchers are capable of firing rockets at ranges of up to 25 miles, and Energoatom said they could enable Russian forces to hit the opposite bank of the Dnieper River, where each side blames the other for almost daily shelling.

Although the risk of a nuclear meltdown is greatly reduced because all six reactors have been shut down, experts have said a dangerous radiation release is still possible.

With renewed focus on the dangers at Zaporizhzhia, the Kremlin is sending new signals about how to end the war, while Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press on with the fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “knows when it may end. It may end tomorrow if he wishes so.”

Zelenskyy has rejected Russia’s conditions, saying the war will end when the occupied territories are retaken or Russian forces leave them.