Ukraine on Monday called for new sanctions on Russia and highlighted the risks and consequences of a catastrophe at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, where fresh shelling nearby has reignited a blame game between both sides.
Ukrainian and Russian-installed officials have traded accusations over who is responsible for attacks close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian soldiers that if they attack the site in the now Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, or use it as a base to shoot from, then they would become a “special target.”
Photo: AP
“If through Russia’s actions a catastrophe occurs the consequences could hit those who for the moment are silent,” he said in a late Monday-night address, calling for new sanctions on Russia’s nuclear sector.
“If now the world does not show strength and decisiveness to defend one nuclear power station, it will mean that the world has lost,” he said.
The world nuclear watchdog has warned of a disaster if the fighting does not stop.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in Enerhodar, said on Monday about 25 heavy artillery strikes from US-made M777 howitzers that hit near the nuclear plant and residential areas during a two-hour period.
Russia’s Interfax news agency, quoting the press service of Enerhodar’s Russian-appointed administration, said Ukrainian forces had opened fire, with blasts near the power plant.
The head of the administration of the Nikopol district, which lies across the river from Enerhodar and remains under Ukrainian control, it was Russian forces that had shelled the city to try to make it appear that Ukraine was attacking it.
“The Russians think they can force the world to comply with their conditions by shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP [nuclear power plant],” Ukrainian Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak wrote on Twitter.
Russian forces continued to shell towns and cities — Velika Kostryumka in the south and Marhanets — opposite the Zaporizhhia nuclear power plant, a report posted on Facebook from the south district of the Ukrainian armed forces said.
Ukrainian forces killed 23 Russian soldiers and destroyed two reinforced positions, it added.
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
The UN said it has the logistics and security capacity to support a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if Russia and Ukraine agree.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu discussed with UN Secretary-General Antonio conditions for the safe functioning of the plant, the ministry said on Monday.
“In close cooperation with the agency and its leadership, we will do everything necessary for the IAEA specialists to be at the station and give a truthful assessment of the destructive actions of the Ukrainian side,” Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, was later quoted as saying it would be too dangerous for any IAEA mission to travel through the capital, Kyiv, to inspect the plant.
“Imagine what it means to pass through Kyiv — it means they get to the nuclear plant through the front line,” Russian state news agency RIA quoted Vishnevetsky as saying.
A Russian-backed separatist court in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk charged five foreign nationals it said were captured fighting with Ukrainian forces with being mercenaries on Monday, Russian media reported. Three of the men could face the death penalty.
The Joint Coordination Centre, set up by the UN, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, said it had approved the departure of the Brave Commander, the first humanitarian food aid cargo bound for Africa from Ukraine since the invasion. It departed yesterday.
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