KIEV (Reuters) – Moscow and Kiev traded fresh accusations on Saturday over bombings around Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, with the international community worried that conflicts in the region could spell disaster.
Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been controlled by Russian forces since early March. Ukrainian officials continue to operate it, and in recent weeks the two sides have exchanged accusations of bombing near the plant.
Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear company Energoatom said Russian soldiers had again bombed the grounds of the plant’s complex in the past 24 hours.
“Damage is being assessed at this time,” Energoatom wrote in a statement on Telegram.
Russia’s defense ministry has accused Ukrainian forces of three bombings at the plant complex in the last 24 hours.
Reuters was unable to verify the report on the battlefield.
“A total of 17 bombs were dropped, and four hit the roof of Special Building No. 1, where 168 US WestingHouse nuclear fuel assemblies are stored,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said 10 bombs exploded near a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, and another three near a building housing fresh nuclear fuel. The folder said the radiation situation at the plant remained normal.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that the situation at Zaporizhzhia remained “very risky” after two of its six reactors were reconnected to the grid in the wake of bombings that prompted the nuclear plant to disconnect them for the first time. time in history.
Energoatom said late on Friday that the plant’s two working reactors had been reconnected to the grid and were again supplying electricity after being disconnected on Thursday.
(By Max Hunder)
#Russia #Ukraine #exchange #accusations #bombing #vicinity #Zaporizhzhia #nuclear #power #plant