Alert that there is a risk of leakage of hydrogen and radioactive substances after the attacks while the EU condemns “the serious violation of security”
Tension is growing around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, after the attacks it received on Friday during the day and night, of which kyiv and Moscow accuse each other with the same expression of “terrorism”. nuclear”. The Ukrainian atomic energy operator Energoatom, which reported that one of the reactors had had to be stopped, warned that there was “the risk of hydrogen escape and dissemination of radioactive substances, apart from a high fire danger.”
The company explained that “the nitrogen-oxygen station and the auxiliary building” had been damaged. The Ukrainian presidential advisor, Mijailo Podoliak, used much more forceful and colloquial language on his Twitter account to denounce what happened: “Europe has received energy this morning (referring to Saturday) because the plant did not explode by a miracle. Russia is in command of the plant and is organizing provocations from there.” Remember that the Russians took control of the nuclear facility in March, shortly after the invasion.
According to the Ukrainian version, Moscow launched three attacks with rocket launchers near the plant on Friday and continued to bombard the area at night, hitting a highway used for transporting hydrogen and power lines. “It is an act of terror,” denounced President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russia assures that it is the Ukrainians who fired the projectiles and caused a fire in the hydrogen station, but that the fire was controlled by the emergency services. “It is nuclear terrorism,” criticized Senator Konstantin Kosáchev. The pro-Russian authority in the region urged the International Atomic Energy Organization to visit the plant to endorse its story.
According to a report by the Institute for the Study of War, Russia would be attacking other locations from Zaporizhia, putting kyiv in a difficult situation, with the dilemma of responding or letting them continue using that base area.
The European Union intervened in the debate with a resounding condemnation of Russia for a serious “violation” of security regulations. “It is a new example of his disregard for international norms,” said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell on his Twitter account.
Amnesty International’s report
The pulse on the story of the war suffered another agitated episode yesterday with the resignation of the director of the Ukrainian section of the NGO Amnesty International, in protest at a controversial report in which the organization accuses the Ukrainian forces of endangering the lives of the country’s civilians by establishing bases in areas inhabited by citizens. “They went to the Ministry of Defense to ask for a reaction, but they gave very little time to respond. That is why the report seemed to support the Russian narrative,” she alleged.
On the ground, Russia announced yesterday that 600 Ukrainian fighters had been killed in bombing raids in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine and in nearby Dnipropetrovsk. According to British intelligence, “Russian forces are concentrating in the south in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kherson or in the framework of preparations for an offensive.”
On the other hand, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has confirmed, on his return from a visit to Russia, where he met with Vladimir Putin, that the Turkish government will begin to pay part of its Russian gas imports in rubles.
#Ukraine #reactor #Zaporizhia #nuclear #power #plant