Shelling at nuclear plant as Russia, Ukraine trade blame

KYIV • Ukraine and Russia accused each other yesterday of risking nuclear disaster by shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in a region expected to become one of the next big front lines of the war.

Western countries have called for Moscow to withdraw its troops from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and the United Nations called on Thursday for it to be declared a demilitarised zone.

But there has been no sign so far of Russia agreeing to move its troops out of the facility they seized in March. The plant dominates the south bank of a vast reservoir on the Dnipro river that cuts across southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces controlling the towns and cities on the opposite bank have come under intense bombardment from the Russian-held side.

Three civilians, including a boy, were wounded in overnight shelling of one of those towns, Marhanets, said Mr Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, in the latest in a string of similar reports.

Kyiv has said for weeks it is planning a counter-offensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson provinces, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its Feb 24 invasion still in Russian hands.

Moscow has installed regional officials who say they intend to stage votes to join Russia.

Ukraine's Energoatom agency, whose workers still operate the plant under Russian occupation, said the power station was struck five times on Thursday, including near where radioactive materials are stored. Both sides blamed each other for the blasts.

Russia says Ukraine is recklessly firing at the plant.

Kyiv says Russian troops struck it themselves, and are also using the plant as a shield to provide cover while they bombard nearby Ukrainian-held towns and cities.

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces do not damage the infrastructure (of the plant), do not strike where there may be a danger on a global scale," Ms Natalia Humeniuk, spokesman for Ukraine's southern military command, told Ukrainian national television.

The UN Security Council, where Russia wields a veto, met on Thursday to discuss the situation.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on both sides to stop all fighting near the plant.

"The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a safe perimeter of demilitarisation to ensure the safety of the area," Mr Guterres said in a statement.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the world was being pushed "to the brink of nuclear catastrophe", comparable in scale with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in then Soviet Ukraine.

However, the Russian envoy to international organisations in Vienna, Mr Mikhail Ulyanov, said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published yesterday that a mission to the nuclear plant led by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi cannot take place before the "end of August or early September".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Russia return the plant to Ukraine's control.

"Only a full withdrawal of the Russians... and the restoration of full Ukrainian control of the situation around the station can guarantee a resumption of nuclear security for all of Europe," he said in a video address.

In more fighting, the northern city of Kharkiv was shelled overnight, according to the local authorities.

Russian forces were partially successful in the offensive in the direction of Horlivka-Zaitseve, the Ukrainian general staff reported.

The Ukrainian military also said Russian forces launched an unsuccessful attack in the districts of Spartak and Maryinka in the Donetsk region.

Fighting continues near the village of Pisky in Luhansk.

Meanwhile, the first UN-chartered vessel set to transport grain from Ukraine under a deal to relieve a global food crisis was set to dock in Ukraine yesterday.

The MV Brave Commander, which left Istanbul on Wednesday, is due to arrive in Yuzhne, east of Odesa on the Black Sea coast, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said.

It will collect Ukrainian wheat grain purchased by the WFP, said the agency's spokesman Tomson Phiri.

The WFP has purchased an initial 30,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat. MV Brave Commander has a capacity of 23,000 tonnes.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE