The risks around the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, where Moscow and kyiv have accused each other of bombing for more than a week, “increase every day”, assured Sunday August 14 the mayor of the city where it is located, Energodar. Dmytro Orlov denounces a “outright nuclear terrorism” of Russia, who “may end unpredictably at any time”.
“Mortar fire on the nuclear power plant is carried out every day and night from the occupied villages”he added, explaining that “the situation is serious and the most worrying thing is that there is no de-escalation process”. Energodar is, like the nuclear power plant known as Zaporijjia (the name of the oblast where it is located), occupied since the beginning of March by Russian troops. Faithful to kyiv, Dmytro Orlov found refuge in Zaporijjia, the big city of the region, a few tens of kilometers away, which remains in the hands of the Ukrainians. According to him, the city of Energodar began during the last 24 hours to be bombarded, “which had never happened before”. On Sunday a civilian, a 45-year-old man, was killed there.
Ukrainian president denounces “Russian blackmail”
Several bombings of which the two parties accuse each other have targeted the plant since last week, raising fears of a nuclear disaster and provoking a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday. The first strikes, on August 5, notably hit a high-voltage power line transformer, causing the automatic shutdown of reactor No. 3 of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and the start-up of its emergency generators.
kyiv accuses Moscow of using the plant as an attack base, without the Ukrainian army being able to retaliate. On Saturday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a “Russian blackmail” around the site.