A Russian bombing of the city of Voznessensk, in southern Ukraine, left 12 civilians injured, including four children, on Saturday (20). The affected site is 30 kilometers from the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, the country’s second-largest nuclear power plant, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The target region of the attack raises concerns about the risk of major accidents, which can lead to radioactive contamination in a large area.
Saturday’s bombing damaged several houses and an apartment building, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitaliy Kim, reported by Telegram. Anti-aircraft alerts sounded repeatedly throughout the day in the affected area.
“It is possible that the missile was specifically aimed at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, which the Russian army tried to take control of, in early March,” Energoatom, which operates the four Ukrainian nuclear plants, said in a statement.
Russia did not immediately react to this accusation. No damage was reported at the Pivdennoukrainsk plant, the second in the country after Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine.
During a phone conversation on Friday, the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and France, Emmanuel Macron, agreed to organize “as soon as possible” an inspection of the Ukrainian nuclear plant in Zaporijia, the target of recent attacks. bombings.
According to the French government, Putin accepted that the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “pass through Ukraine”. The Russian leader “emphasized that the systematic bombing […] of the territory of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant creates a danger of a large-scale disaster, which could lead to radioactive contamination of vast territories”, according to the Kremlin.
Kiev and Moscow accuse each other of dangerous bombings there. The Ukrainian government says Russian troops are shooting at the nuclear plant to accuse Kiev of these bombings.
NATO denounces that the Russian occupation of the Zaporijia plant “poses a serious threat to the [e] increases the risk of a nuclear accident or incident” in Europe.
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