Ukraine and Russia traded blame for fresh shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Saturday, underscoring the persistent danger of fighting around the plant as the United Nations’ atomic watchdog prepares to visit the site next week.
The fighting has raised global alarm about the risk of a nuclear accident and prompted urgent calls from world leaders for international inspectors to be granted access to the facility. Russia has occupied the nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — since March, though Ukrainian workers continue to operate it. Explosions and fires in the area in recent days have led to the deaths of two workers and temporarily disconnected electricity to and from the plant, producing mass power outages in nearby villages.
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Russian troops “repeatedly” targeted the facility between Friday and Saturday afternoons, Ukraine’s nuclear power agency said in a statement Saturday. “As a result of periodic shelling, the infrastructure of the power plant has been damaged, there are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances, and the fire hazard is high,” the agency said.
Russian Grad rockets and artillery shells damaged houses, power lines and an educational center in Nikopol, a city across the river from the Zaporizhzhia plant, and in neighboring villages, Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said in a Telegram post Saturday. Residents told The Post they were without power for several hours.
Moscow, meanwhile, blamed Kyiv’s forces for attacks on the nuclear plant, alleging Saturday that shells launched by the Ukrainian military from the village of Marhanets hit the power plant’s territory three times over the previous day.
Ukrainian forces fired 17 shells, Russia’s Defense Ministry alleged — with four hitting the roof of a building housing nuclear fuel and 13 exploding near storage sites for nuclear fuel and solid radioactive waste.
None of the claims could be independently verified.
World leaders and nuclear experts worry the fighting could compromise the plant’s cooling systems, causing a nuclear meltdown. Radioactive material that leaks from the site could contaminate nearby areas and possibly blow across Ukraine’s borders — posing a silent threat to human health and the environment for years.
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Local authorities in the Zaporizhzhia region have begun distributing potassium iodide tablets to residents in case of such a leak. Officials emphasized that people should only take them after a nuclear accident occurs — not as a preventive measure. The pills can help block radioactive iodine from being absorbed by the thyroid, decreasing the risk of developing thyroid cancer later from exposure to radioactive material.
Radiation levels remained normal, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said.