Russia-Ukraine War
Highlights
- Russo-Ukraine war continues for 166th day
- Ukraine’s shelling caused fire: Russia
- Ukraine accuses arms storage
Russia-Ukraine War: Today is the 166th day of the ongoing war in Russia-Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine on Monday accused each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. Russia claimed that Ukrainian shelling started the fire and forced workers to cut production from the two reactors. At the same time, Ukraine accused Russian soldiers of storing weapons there.
Nuclear experts have warned that further shelling at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power station, captured by Russia at the start of the war, is fraught with danger. The Kremlin on Monday reiterated its statement that it claimed Ukrainian shelling could have disastrous consequences for Europe.
‘May pose a serious health and environmental hazard’
International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi has warned that the way the plant is being operated under Russian military forces and fighting around it could pose serious health and environmental risks. Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Andrey Yusov, countered the Russian statements by saying that his organization had received credible information from multiple sources that the Russian military had planted explosives at the Zaporizhzhya plant to counter an expected Ukrainian retaliation in the area.
Earlier Ukrainian officials said Russia was launching attacks from the plant and using Ukrainian workers as human shields. The nuclear plant caught fire last week before Sunday’s shelling and both sides accused each other of the attack.
‘Reactor number 5, 6 production reduced to 500 MW’
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday that Ukraine’s attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant a day earlier caused smoke at its switch facility, prompting it to shut down in an emergency. He said fire teams extinguished the blaze and plant personnel reduced the output of reactor No. 5 and No. 6 to 500 MW. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged Western countries to force Kyiv to stop attacking the plant.
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