Incident at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant would be ‘catastrophic’

Kyiv — Ukraine called for new sanctions on Russia and highlighted the risks and consequences of a catastrophe at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, where new shelling nearby has reignited a blame game between both sides.

Ukraine and Russia-installed officials have traded accusations over who is responsible for attacks close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 will become a “special target”.

“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.”

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in Enerhodar, said on Monday about 25 heavy artillery strikes from US-made M777 howitzers had 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.

But according to 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),” Andriy Yermak, chief of the Ukrainian presidential staff, wrote on Twitter.

Russian forces continued to shell towns and cities — Velika Kostryumka in the south and Marhanets — opposite the Zaporizhhia nuclear power plant, according to a report from the south district of the Ukrainian armed forces on Facebook.

Ukrainian forces killed 23 Russian soldiers and destroyed two reinforced positions, it added.

Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.

The UN says it has the logistics and security capacity to support a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if both Russia and Ukraine agree.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu held a phone call with Guterres to discuss conditions for the safe functioning of the plant, the ministry said on Monday.

But Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy head of the foreign ministry’s nuclear proliferation and arms control department, was later quoted as saying it would be too dangerous for any IAEA mission to travel through the capital Kyiv to inspect the plant.

Ukraine, where parliament on Monday extended martial law for a further three months, has said for weeks it is planning a counteroffensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson province, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its Feb. 24 invasion and still holds.

Death penalty

The conflict, which has caused millions to flee and killed thousands, has put major strain on relations between Moscow and the West.

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.

Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarise its neighbour and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and Western backers accuse Moscow of waging an imperial-style war of conquest.

Russian media reported explosions in Crimea — the southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 — early on Tuesday, including at an ammunition depot in the village of Mayskoye. Russia’s defence ministry said there were no serious casualties, state-owned news agency RIA reported. Earlier on Tuesday, RIA also reported a fire at a transformer substation near the town of Dzhankoi in Crimea, 20km away.

Even as the biggest attack on a European state since 1945 ground on, there was progress on a grain deal to ease a global food crisis created by the conflict.

The ship Brave Commander has left the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, carrying the first cargo of humanitarian food aid bound for Africa from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Tuesday. Turkey’s defence ministry said a total of five ships left Ukrainian ports carrying corn and wheat.

Britain’s defence ministry said Russia’s Black Sea fleet was struggling to exercise effective sea control, with patrols generally limited to waters within sight of the Crimean coast.

Reuters