Ukraine on Sunday accused Russia of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant again, Zaporozhyeand called for new international sanctions against Moscow on the grounds of “nuclear terror”.
Ukraine’s state nuclear power company said three radiation sensors at the facility were damaged in another shelling by Russian troops on Saturday night and shrapnel wounded a worker.
“Russian nuclear terror requires a stronger international response – sanctions on Russia’s nuclear industry and fuel,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote. Twitter.
Factories in Russian-controlled areas were also shelled on Friday. Moscow blamed the strike on the Ukrainian army.
Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said the latest Russian rocket attack hit the plant’s dry storage facility, which stores 174 containers of spent nuclear fuel in the open.
“As a result, timely detection and response is impossible in the event of a deteriorating radiation situation or radiation leakage from a spent nuclear fuel container,” it said.
In a statement issued by Interfax, the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Enerhodar, where the plant’s employees live, said Ukraine carried out the attack using a 220mm Uragan multiple rocket launcher system.
“The adjoining areas of the administration building and storage facility were damaged,” it said
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday’s shelling indicated the risk of a nuclear catastrophe. The shells hit high-voltage power lines, and although no radioactive leaks were detected, operators at the plant disconnected the reactor.
The Zaporozhye plant was occupied by Russian troops at the beginning of the war in early March, but is still managed by Ukrainian technicians.
