Sunday, massive explosions shook the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine as the global nuclear watchdog warned that those responsible for the continued bombardment were “playing with fire.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that more than a dozen explosions occurred close to and at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, disrupting the relative and recent calm in the area (IAEA).
The chairman of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, described the blasts as “very alarming.”
This huge nuclear power plant has experienced explosions, which is simply unacceptable, said Grossi. “Whoever is responsible for this must immediately cease. As I have repeatedly stated, you are playing with fire!”
IAEA reports that multiple buildings, systems, and pieces of equipment were damaged, but none of the damage compromised the plant’s safety.
Moscow and Kiev have exchanged blame for the bombardment near the site.
During the early stages of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the neighboring country, Russian troops captured the power facility.
Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear power operator of Ukraine, blamed Russian forces for the dangerous explosions, stating that the shelling was in line with the Kremlin’s strategy “to damage or destroy as much of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as possible as winter approaches.”
Igor Konashenkov, head of the Russian Defense Ministry, insisted Ukraine soldiers bombed the plant twice on Sunday, striking near the complex’s electrical lines.
Before Russia’s invasion, the plant supplied roughly one-fifth of the country’s electricity, but it has been forced to rely on backup generators on multiple occasions.
Reactors containing Uranium 235 have been shut down, but it is feared that nuclear fuel could overheat if the power to the cooling systems is cut.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian troops destroyed 30 homes across 12 communities in other parts of the Zaporizhia region.
In the city of Nikopol in the center Dnipropetrovsk area, which sits across from the power plant, one person was hurt and twenty structures were damaged by explosions.
The Kharkiv region’s Kupyansk, Chuguiv, and Izyum districts have also come under severe Russian fire in the past day.
The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russian explosions killed one person and damaged power lines in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russian soldiers fired tank shells, rockets, and other weapons at the city of Kherson and surrounding settlements, while Zelensky’s administration stated that the situation in the southern Kherson region “remains bad.”
Ukrainian soldiers recently liberated the city of Kherson.