Fresh shelling close to Ukrainian nuclear plant powers fear of catastrophe
Russian rockets and artillery struck cities just a few miles from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said Sunday, fueling fears of dangerous radiation leaks and nuclear disaster.
Russian forces control the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the left bank of the wide Dnieper River, and Ukraine controls the right bank, where the attacks struck the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets.
A Russian Defense Ministry countered that Ukrainian forces shelled the plant twice in the last day, coming close to buildings that store fuel and radioactive waste.
Workers drain water from a crater created by an explosion that damaged a residential building after a Russian attack in Slovyansk, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. (Leo Correa/)
Each side in the war has been blaming the other for attacks dangerously near the giant power plant and the cooling systems for its nuclear reactors.
A failure in the cooling systems, which need power to operate, could trigger a nuclear meltdown. In a frightening incident last Thursday, the plant temporarily lost power due to what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line.
Officials have been handing out iodine tablets to residents living nearby in case of dangerous radiation exposure.
Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhzhia plant soon after the war began in February, although Ukrainian workers are continuing to operate it.
An apartment damaged after a Russian attack in Slovyansk, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. (Leo Correa/)
About six miles from the plant, Russian attacks on Nikopol left parts of the city without electricity, while rocket strikes damaged about a dozen homes in Marhanets, also about six miles away. Upriver about 25 miles, two people were wounded in attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukrainian officials.
Downriver, the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and an adjacent city were hit by Ukrainian rockets three times on Sunday, according to Russia-installed officials.
The reservoir created by the hydroelectric plant’s dam is a critical source of water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The dam itself serves as a major route across the Dnieper River and a potential supply route for Russian forces.
Further east in the Donetsk region, where Russian and separatist forces are fighting to expand control, the strategically important cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk were shelled but no casualties were reported.
The Zaporizhzhia plant’s infrastructure already has been damaged by the shelling, according to Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator.
“There are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances, and the fire hazard is high,” it said Saturday.
This composite of satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC shows smoke rising from fires at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC/)
The United Nations’ atomic energy agency has been trying to reach a deal to allow its inspectors to visit the at-risk plant, but while preparations are underway it is not clear exactly when an inspection will be permitted.
The New York Times reported U.N. nuclear inspectors could arrive as soon as this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said it was essential for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to reach the plant and help keep it “under permanent Ukrainian control.”
“The situation remains precarious and dangerous,” Zelenskyy said Friday in his nightly address. “Any repetition of [Thursday’s] events, i.e., any disconnection of the station from the grid or any actions by Russia that could trigger the shutdown of the reactors, will once again put the station one step away from disaster.”
Ukraine was the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the world’s worst nuclear power disaster, in 1986.
Due to the conflict at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, Russia late Friday blocked agreement on a final version of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a cornerstone of nuclear disarmament that is under review at the U.N.
A draft of the document criticized Russia’s takeover of the Zaporizhzhia plant.
In response, a member of the Russian delegation said the review was being held “a political hostage” to countries trying “to settle scores with Russia by raising issues that are not directly related to the treaty.”
Ukrainian servicemen ride atop of an armored vehicle on a road in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. (Leo Correa/)
Meanwhile, the British government said Saturday it would be providing Ukraine with underwater drones and training its sailors on using them to clear mines from the country’s coastline.
Mines that have been laid in the Black Sea during the war have blocked shipments of Ukrainian grain to global markets.
An agreement brokered in July has permitted grain shipments to leave Ukrainian ports along one route.
More than 1 million metric tons of Ukrainian agricultural products have been shipped so far this month under the Black Sea deal, the U.N. said Saturday.
The renewed supply flow is desperately needed by drought-ravaged Ethiopia, Yemen and other countries at high risk of famine, the U.N. has said.
With News Wire Services
