War in Ukraine: new strikes at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the UN worries

Europe 1 with AFP 6:25 p.m., August 11, 2022, modified at 6:26 p.m., August 11, 2022

THE ESSENTIAL

"The situation is getting worse, radioactive substances are located nearby and several radiation sensors have been damaged," noted the Ukrainian state company Energoatom following the attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

"At present, no contamination has been detected at the station and the level of radioactivity is normal", however affirmed Evguéni Balitski, the head of the civil and military administration set up in this region of the south-west. east of Russian-occupied Ukraine, pointing out that "several tons" of radioactive waste are stored there.

Information to remember:

- kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of having bombed the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia

- The UN considers the situation worrying and meets Thursday evening

- The Russians shell an industrial city

"Five new strikes were reported in the direct vicinity of a depot of radioactive substances," Energoatom said, pointing to Russian forces, which seized the Zaporizhia power plant on March 4, just days after the start - February 24- of their offensive in Ukraine.

The accusation of the Russians against the Ukrainians

A pro-Russian official, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the regional administration installed by Moscow, for his part blamed "the fighters (of Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky", evoking five shots of multiple rocket launchers and artillery pieces heavy on the right bank of the Dnieper, the great river that crosses the region, in the same place and in identical terms.

"The grass caught fire in a small area, but no one was injured," read the Russian and Ukrainian statements, which report five other projectiles falling near a fire station located not far from there.

Several bombings for which the two parties also reject responsibility, without it being possible to verify these statements from independent sources, had already occurred on the territory of the plant at the end of last week, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. .

The strikes had also continued overnight from Wednesday to Thursday on the front line, including in the vicinity of these highly sensitive installations.

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Washington says it supports a demilitarized zone around Zaporizhia

The United States on Thursday called on Russia to cease all military operations in and around nuclear power plants in Ukraine and said it supports kyiv's call for a "demilitarized zone" in Zaporizhia.

“Fighting near a nuclear power plant is dangerous and irresponsible,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding that “the United States continues to call on Russia to cease all military operations in and around nuclear power plants. nuclear power plants and return full control to Ukraine, and support Ukrainian calls for a demilitarized zone in and around the nuclear power plant."

A risk of "catastrophic consequences"

“Unfortunately, instead of a de-escalation, even more disturbing incidents have been reported in recent days, incidents which if continued could lead to a catastrophe,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, saying to himself. "gravely concerned about the situation in and around the plant".

"It must be clear, any damage to Zaporizhia or any other nuclear site in Ukraine, or anywhere else, could cause catastrophic consequences not only around but for the region and beyond. This is totally unacceptable." , he insisted.

"I asked everyone to use common sense and reason," added Antonio Guterres, urging to "immediately cease" all military activity near the plant, not to "target" it and not to use its territory "in the context of military operations" and speaking out in favor of the creation of a "demilitarized perimeter to ensure the security of the area".

Thursday evening meeting at the UN

The UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Thursday to discuss this burning issue, at Russia's request.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has indicated that its director general, Rafael Grossi, will inform this body of "the nuclear safety and security situation" in Zaporizhia, as well as of its "efforts to agree of an IAEA expert mission to the site as soon as possible".

"Russia is now a terrorist state and is holding the nuclear power plant hostage, blackmailing the nuclear disaster," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday in an address to a donors' conference in Copenhagen.

Russia can cause there "the greatest radioactive emergency in history (...). And the consequences can be even worse than those (of the accident in 1986) of Chernobyl", he added.

Several Russian shellings recorded

In Nikopol, in the south-east of Ukraine, about a hundred kilometers from Zaporijjia, on the other side of the Dnieper, Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported three dead and nine wounded in nighttime launches. Russian Grad multiple rockets.

In the east, in the Donbass mining basin, the head of the military administration of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, announced in the morning that 11 civilians had been killed in the past 24 hours.

And the Russians relentlessly shell Soledar, an industrial city of 11,000 inhabitants before the war, thus trying to drive out the Ukrainian army in order to advance towards the neighboring, larger city of Bakhmout.

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The main objective of the Donbass for Russia

Since Russian troops ended their operation in kyiv at the end of March and withdrew from the outskirts of the capital, the Kremlin has made Donbass, partly controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists, its main objective.

The real Russian advance is very slow and the war has turned into artillery duels between two entrenched armies around a few localities.

"We are waiting for the armed forces to liberate the south of our country, including Mariupol. We are waiting for it and it will happen soon", nevertheless released the mayor of this city-martyr, Vadim Boïtchenko.

In Belarus, the army on Thursday denied reports of explosions that occurred overnight near a military airfield in the Gomel region, near the border with Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defense only spoke of a vehicle having "caught fire".

In Crimea, strong explosions devastated an ammunition depot on a Russian military airfield on Tuesday, causing at least one death and several injuries, but Moscow assured that no strike or shot had caused them.

Kyiv has not admitted responsibility for either incident, but an adviser to the presidency, Mikhailo Podoliak, wrote on Twitter: "The epidemic of technical accidents at airbases in Crimea and Belarus should be considered by the Russian army as a warning: forget Ukraine, take off the uniform and go. Neither in occupied Crimea nor in occupied Belarus will you be safe".