Ukrainian President Zelenskyy appealed to Russia over fears of an increased nuclear disaster after Europe’s largest nuclear facility received more shells.
Renewed Russian shelling damaged Three sensors radiated and injured a worker at the Zaporizhzhia power plant during the second strike in consecutive days, Ukraine said on Sunday.
The attack raised fears of a radioactive disaster.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Saturday night’s shelling “Russian nuclear terrorism,” which needs more international sanctions – this time on Moscow’s nuclear sector. Ukraine said Russian shells hit a power line at the plant on Friday.
However, the Russian-installed regional authority said Ukraine hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and a nearby area.
The Zaporizhzhia The nuclear power plant is Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mr. Rafael Grossi, said he was very concerned by reports of damage and asked that an IAEA team of experts urgently be allowed to visit the plant to site assessment and protection.
“I am deeply concerned about the shelling of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which highlights the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond. more,” Grossi said in a statement.
“Military action that jeopardizes the safety and security of the Zaporizhzya nuclear power plant is completely unacceptable and must be avoided at all costs.”
Nuclear arms control expert Tariq Rauf told Al Jazeera that Russia’s reason for occupying Zaporizhzhia’s nuclear power plant was “to provide electricity to the eastern regions of Ukraine that Russia has occupied”.
“But we really don’t know what the situation is like at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant,” Rauf said.
“Why did the Ukrainian army hit it when they had their men there?” he asks. “And similarly, why would the Russians shoot it when they have soldiers and technical experts there?”
Battle for Donbas
The Russian army, meanwhile, continues to win control the Donbas . region eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists seized territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea to the south in 2014.
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces intensified their attacks north and northwest of the city of Donetsk in Donbas on Sunday. The Russians attacked Ukrainian positions near the fortified settlements of Piski and Avdiivka, as well as shelling other sites in the Donetsk region, it said.
Kyiv also said Russian forces were strengthening in southern Ukraine to prevent a potential counterattack near Kherson.
Ukraine’s chief war crimes prosecutor said nearly 26,000 suspected war criminals committed since the invasion are under investigation, with 135 people charged, 15 of whom are in custody. Russia denies targeting civilians.
