Shelling of Zaporizhzhia is playing with fire, says UN nuclear chief - The Guardian

The UN atomic vigor watchdog has said the forces down the shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia powerfulness works are “playing with fire”, aft a bid of explosions shook the facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has experts based astatine Zaporizhzhia, reported connected Sunday that almighty explosions had shaken the country connected Saturday nighttime and Sunday. It said its on-site experts saw immoderate of the explosions from their windows.

It reported much than a twelve blasts from evident shelling, with harm to immoderate buildings, systems and equipment, but “none truthful acold captious for atomic safety”.

The caput of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said the quality was highly disturbing and helium called the explosions wholly unacceptable. “Whoever is down this, it indispensable halt immediately. As I person said galore times before, you’re playing with fire,” helium said.

According to the IAEA Twitter account, Grossi renewed his entreaty to Ukraine and Russia to hold and instrumentality a atomic information and information portion astir the works arsenic soon arsenic possible.

Zaporizhzhia, successful south-east Ukraine, is Europe’s largest atomic powerfulness presumption and has been nether Russian power since March, though its Ukrainian unit stay successful spot to tally the facility. It has faced repeated shelling, raising fears of a atomic disaster. Moscow and Kyiv person blamed each different for the attacks.

The plant’s six Soviet-designed water-cooled reactors are presently unopen down, but determination is simply a hazard that atomic substance could overheat if the powerfulness that drives the cooling systems is shut. Shelling has often damaged the plant’s powerfulness supply.

Russian officials person claimed that Ukrainian forces are down the latest attacks. “They are shelling not lone yesterday but besides today, they are shelling adjacent now,” an advisor to the caput of Russia’s atomic powerfulness relation Rosenergoatom, Renat Karchaa, told the Russian authorities quality bureau Tass. He said determination had been 15 aerial strikes, including 1 that deed a retention facility.

Soon aft the Russian accusations, Ukraine’s atomic vigor agency, Energoatom, said Russia was liable for the shelling, which it said had resulted successful 12 hits to Zaporizhzhia’s infrastructure. The institution said connected Telegram that the database of damaged instrumentality indicated that the attackers “targeted and disabled precisely the infrastructure that was indispensable for the restart of 5th and 6th powerfulness units” and the restoration of powerfulness accumulation for Ukrainian needs.

Ukraine faces a collapse successful its energy supply aft a relentless Russian bombing run targeted astatine powerfulness infrastructure.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has antecedently called for each troops to permission the works truthful that it is nether afloat power of Ukrainian atomic workers. His authorities has called the attacks connected the works false-flag operations by Russia.

Ukraine’s defence ministry published figures claiming that 84,210 Russian soldiers had been “eliminated” since the warfare began, including 330 successful the past 24 hours. Ukraine besides claimed Russia had mislaid 2,886 tanks, 5,817 armoured vehicles and 278 subject jets.

Ukraine and Russia diminution to people their ain casualty figures, but earlier this period a senior US wide estimated determination had been “well implicit 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded”, and a akin fig connected the Ukrainian side.