Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of risking a nuclear incident by shelling Europe’s biggest atomic power plant amid continued heavy fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine and waves of blackouts due to Russian bombing of the country’s national grid.
Ukrainian officials said at least one person was killed and three injured on Monday in shelling of Kherson, where prosecutors announced the discovery of several “torture chambers” allegedly used by Russian troops before Ukraine liberated the city this month.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its experts planned to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine, which is operated by Ukrainian staff overseen by Russian troops who seized the area in March.
The IAEA said staff at the station reported that shelling over the weekend had damaged several parts of the facility, including “a radioactive waste and storage building, cooling pond sprinkler systems ... and a bridge between a reactor and its auxiliary buildings.”
IAEA director Rafael Grossi said “we were fortunate that a potentially serious nuclear incident did not happen ... Even though there was no direct impact on key nuclear safety and security systems at the plant, the shelling came dangerously close to them. We are talking metres, not kilometres. Whoever is shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is taking huge risks and gambling with many people’s lives.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Nato’s parliamentary assembly via video link on Monday that “all our nations want to prevent any dangerous incidents at our nuclear facilities ... We all need guaranteed protection from Russian missiles and Russian sabotage of infrastructure.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant – where all six reactors are currently shut down – “should be of the utmost concern for the IAEA. We are urging all the countries in the world to use their influence so that the Ukrainian armed forces stop doing this.”
Alexei Likhachev, head of Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom, said “the plant is at risk of a nuclear disaster and Kiev clearly believes that a small nuclear incident would be acceptable.”
The occupation and subsequent shutdown of the Zaporizhzhia plant has exacerbated an energy crisis in Ukraine caused by repeated Russian missile and drone strikes on its power stations, which have destroyed about 40 per cent of the national grid.
Power cuts for several hours a day are now the norm in much of Ukraine as winter sets in, and recently liberated Kherson has no electricity.
Ukrainian prosecutors said on Monday they had found four locations in Kherson where Russian forces allegedly tortured people during the eight-month occupation.
“We can be left without money. Without fuel. Without hot water. Without light. But not without freedom,” Mr Zelenskiy said on Ukraine’s day of dignity and freedom, which marks revolutions in 2003-4 and 2013-14 when pro-democracy and anti-corruption protesters defeated Russian-backed politicians.
“We will never forget all those who gave their lives for Ukraine. And we will never forgive all those who took away their lives and wanted to take away our freedom. But the main thing is that no one succeeded and no one will ever succeed,” Mr Zelenskiy added.
