Sun 28 August 2022:
Shellfire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine fuelled fears of major disaster as both sides kept blaming the other, while Russian forces targeted towns on the far side of the river from Europe’s largest atomic plant.
The nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest, has been under Russian control since March. Clashes around the complex have sparked widespread concern and fears of a disaster.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry inside the complex and using it as cover to launch attacks, knowing that Ukraine can’t return fire without risking hitting one of the plant’s six reactors.
Despite the danger, officials from the United Nations nuclear watchdog were still waiting for clearance to visit the plant on the southern front line of the conflict.
Standing beside a crater at a school that had been largely reduced to rubble, the governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, told Ukrainian television people were being informed how to apply iodine in case of a radiation leak.
Exchange blame
Ukraine and Russia on Saturday again exchanged blame over shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which continues to pique concerns of a wide-scale crisis.
Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said Russian troops had again shelled the grounds of the plant in the preceding 24 hours, saying the damage was ‘currently being ascertained’.
Russia’s defence ministry, meanwhile, accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the complex three times in 24 hours. It said four shells hit the roof of a building storing “168 assemblies of US Westinghouse nuclear fuel”.
The back-and-forth comes as inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog were awaiting clearance to enter the site.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant generates about 20% of Ukraine’s electricity and a prolonged disconnection from the national grid would have been a huge challenge for Ukraine as colder weather approaches.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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