KYIV : Russia and Ukraine accused one other on Thursday of further shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss security concerns about the facility.
Both Moscow and Kiev reported five rocket hits near a hazardous material holding area at the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear complex, which has recently seen renewed combat.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear organisation, later stated that there had been further Russian shooting near one of the plant’s six reactors, causing “massive smoke” and “damage to many radiation monitors.”
On the messaging app Telegram, Vladimir ,a member of the Moscow-installed regional government, stated Ukrainian soldiers “once again struck” the plant.The Ukrainian plant is under Russian control, and Ukraine has accused Moscow of stationing hundreds of soldiers and storing weapons there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russia that an occurrence “even more terrible than Chernobyl” might occur, referring to the 1986 nuclear accident in then-Soviet Ukraine.
In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that continuing confrontations around the plant might “lead to calamity.”
He asked both parties to “immediately suspend” all military operations around the power plant.
Later that day, the US State Department stated that the US supported UN and other calls to establish a demilitarised zone around the plant.
