Russia: Ukraine committed "nuclear terrorism" in Zaporizhia
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Ukraine's bombing of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant raises the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in Europe.
Shoigu accused Kyiv of committing "nuclear terrorism" and rejected its assertions, along with the West, that his country had deployed heavy weapons at Europe's largest nuclear plant, located in southern Ukraine.
Russia has controlled the station since March.
"We do not have heavy weapons in or around the nuclear power plant area. I hope the IAEA mission will be convinced of this," Shoigu said in comments published by the Defense Ministry.
A mission from the agency arrived at the station on Thursday to inspect operations and assess any damage.
Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of attacking the facility.
Shoigu stressed Moscow's insistence that Kyiv bears responsibility for any escalation at the site, amid fears of a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster.
He said Kyiv "is creating a real threat of nuclear catastrophe" and is using weapons obtained from the West to attack the plant.
He added that over the past six weeks, Ukraine fired 120 artillery shells and launched 16 drone attacks, describing those attacks as "kamikaze", a term for suicide attacks after the attacks of Japanese pilots in World War II.
"No less than nuclear terrorism," Shoigu added, accusing the United States and the European Union of "encouraging such reckless actions."
Kyiv holds Moscow responsible for the bombing and accuses it of using the facility as a shield for its forces, which Moscow denies.
Russian officials said earlier in the week that radiation levels at the facility were normal.
Russia's envoy to international organizations in Vienna said today, Friday, that two officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency are scheduled to remain at the Zaporizhia station permanently after the end of the agency's current mission there.
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