Global Courant 2023-05-07 15:32:20
Kyiv, Ukraine — The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog expresses growing concern over the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after the governor of the Russian-occupied territory ordered the evacuation of a town where most of the factory workers live amid ongoing attacks in the area.
The factory is near the front lines of fighting, and Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday that a 72-year-old woman was killed and three others injured when Russian troops fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-occupied town next to the factory. .
“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAA), said in a warning that came Saturday before the latest report of attacks.
“I am deeply concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant.”
Grossi’s comments were prompted by an announcement Friday by Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed governor of the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia province, that he had ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements in the area, including Enerhodar, which sits next to the power plant. , the largest in Europe.
The affected settlements are about 50 to 70 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) from the front lines of fighting between Ukraine and Russia, and Balitsky said Ukraine had intensified attacks on the area in recent days.
The region is also widely seen as a likely area for Ukraine to target its anticipated spring counter-offensive.
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Sunday that the evacuation of Enerhodar had already begun.
According to an update on Facebook, the General Staff said the first evacuated residents were those who took Russian citizenship after Moscow’s capture of the city early in the war.
They were taken to the Russian-occupied coast of the Azov Sea, about 200 kilometers to the southeast.
Grossi said the plant’s operating staff, whose six reactors are currently all shut down, had not been evacuated on Saturday, but most live in Enerhodar and that the situation has contributed to “increasingly tense, stressful and challenging conditions for staff and their families.”
He added that IAEA experts at the nuclear site “continue to hear frequent shelling.”
“We must act now to prevent the threat of a serious nuclear accident and the associated consequences for the population and the environment,” Grossi said. “This large nuclear facility must be protected. I will continue to push for a commitment from all parties to achieve this vital goal.”
Elsewhere, Russian shelling on Saturday and overnight killed six civilians and wounded four others in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, according to a Telegram update published by the local government on Sunday.
Five civilians were injured in the eastern Donetsk region, the epicenter of fighting in recent months, local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops attacked the main port of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula overnight with drones, a Kremlin-installed local official told Telegram early Sunday.
According to the post of Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, ten Ukrainian drones attacked the city, three of which were shot down by air defense systems. Razvozhayev said there was no damage.
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Joanna Kozlowska contributed to this story from London.
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