Rocket and artillery strikes continue to hit areas near Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine
The United States said on Sunday that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and accused Russia of using that reticence to block a nuclear non-proliferation treaty deal's final draft.
"The Russian Federation alone decided to block consensus on a final document at the conclusion of the Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Russia did so in order to block language that merely acknowledged the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
The statement comes after Russia blocked an agreement on Friday on the final draft of a review of the UN treaty, considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, over criticism of Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Sunday that Russian rocket and artillery strikes hit areas across the Dnieper River from Europe's largest nuclear power plant as fears persisted that fighting in the vicinity could damage the plant and cause a radiation leak.
Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant soon after the war began and hold adjacent territory along the left bank of the wide river. Ukraine controls the right bank, including the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each of them about 10 kilometres from the plant.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had shelled the plant twice over the past day and that some shells fell near buildings storing reactor fuel and radioactive waste.
Heavy firing during the night left parts of Nikopol without electricity, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Rocket strikes damaged about a dozen residences in Marhanets, according to Yevhen Yevtushenko, the administration head for the district that includes the city of about 45,000.
- THE LATEST Ukraine , Russia accuse each other of shelling around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
- fire during the night, wounding two people, city council member Anatoliy Kurtev said.
Downriver from the nuclear plant, the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and the city adjacent to it were hit by Ukrainian rockets three times on Sunday, said Vladimir Leontyev , the head of the Russia-installed local administration.
The plant's dam is a major roadway across the river and a potentially key supply route for Russian forces. The dam also forms a reservoir that provides water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.