Russian forces fired missiles and artillery on areas held by Ukraine across the river from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, authorities said Saturday as concern persisted about safety at the Russian-controlled plant after it was temporarily knocked offline. Grad missiles and artillery shells hit the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each about 6 miles and across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russian forces occupied the nuclear plant complex early in the war in Ukraine, and Ukrainian workers have kept it running. Each side has repeatedly accused the other of shelling the complex, raising fears that the fighting could trigger a catastrophe.
State energy operator Energoatom said Saturday there was a risk of a radioactive leak at the plant, the AFP news agency reported.
“As a result of periodic shelling, the infrastructure of the station has been damaged, there are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances, and the fire hazard is high,” the agency said on Telegram, according to AFP.
Authorities began distributing iodine tablets Friday to residents who live near the plant in case of a radiation leak. The move came a day after the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line.
The U.N. nuclear agency has been attempting to deploy a team to the facility to conduct an inspection and provide security. Although preparations for the visit were reportedly under progress, an exact date was still unknown.
According to Ukraine, Russia is allegedly stockpiling weaponry inside the power plant and firing strikes from the area surrounding it as a kind of defense. Moscow, for its part, charges Ukraine of shooting carelessly on the nuclear facility.
Local government authorities in other parts of Ukraine reported that one person was killed and another was injured by Russian fire in the Mykolaiv area. A significant Black Sea port and hub for shipbuilding is Mykolaiv City.
Russian soldiers fired on the city of Bakhmut on Saturday, killing two people, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region. Bakhmut is a key target for Russian and separatist forces attempting to seize the remaining portions of the province.