Russia and Ukraine trade accusations of strikes near nuclear reactor
A soldier in a uniform with the Russian flag near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Reuters
Ukraine and Russia accused each other of carrying out strikes near a reactor at Europe's largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhia, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia should bear responsibility for the bombing of the Zaporizhia plant.
"Every bombing of this kind is a heinous crime and a terrorist act... Russia should be held responsible for threatening a nuclear plant," Zelensky added, calling for sanctions to be imposed on Russia's nuclear industry following the bombing of Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
The Ukrainian public company "Energoatom" said that the station continues to operate and provide electricity to the Ukrainian power system, and reported that there are risks about hydrogen leakage and the spread of radioactive materials.
The risk of fire is high, without talking about casualties.
As for the Russian army, it spoke in a statement about artillery shelling by Ukrainian armed formations on the Zaporizhia station area and the city of Energodar, denouncing what it called "acts of nuclear terrorism."
And the International Atomic Energy Agency announced last week that it is continuing its efforts to send a mission to the place, because the situation is unstable at the Zaporizhia station.
In a related context, the Ukrainian army announced that Russian forces are fiercely attacking Bakhmut, the cornerstone of the defense system around the last urban area under Ukrainian control, in the Donbas region in the east of the country.
Since the seizure of the Luhansk region in early July, the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has been concentrated in the neighboring Donetsk region.
Luhansk and Donetsk make up the Donbass region, a predominantly Russian-speaking region that has been the focus of Moscow's war targets for months.
Step by step, the Russians have been able to hold off the Ukrainian defenders in recent weeks.
They now control about 60% of the region.
The European Union condemned what it called "the irresponsible violation of nuclear safety rules committed by Russia by launching strikes near the Ukrainian nuclear plant of Zaporizhia," according to what was announced yesterday by the bloc's Foreign Minister Josep Borrell.
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