Shellfire resounds around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

A Ukrainian artillery unit fires a BM-27 Uragan, a self-propelled 220 mm multiple rocket launcher, near the frontline in Donetsk Saturday. Pic/AFP

Russian artillery fired at Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overnight, local officals said on Sunday, adding to residents' anguish as reports of shelling around the plant fuelled fears of a radiation disaster. Despite the danger, officials from the United Nations nuclear watchdog were still waiting for clearance to visit the plant.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, told Ukrainian television people were being informed how to apply iodine in case of a radiation leak. He was speaking in the city of Zaporizhzhia, two hours drive from the plant. Russian forces seized the plant since early March soon after invading Ukraine, while Ukrainian staff continue to operate it. In recent weeks both countries have traded blame for shelling near the plant.

Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom said Russian troops again shelled the grounds of the complex in the last 24 hours. "The damage is currently being ascertained," Energoatom wrote on Telegram. Moscow's defence ministry on Saturday accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant complex three times in 24 hours. It said 17 shells were fired, with four hitting a building storing "168 assemblies of U.S. Westinghouse nuclear fuel". It said 10 shells exploded near a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and three near a building that houses nuclear fuel storage. It said the radiation situation at the plant remained normal.

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