Monday, concerns grew that the Ukraine conflict may harm Europe’s biggest nuclear reactor. Ukraine and Russia accuse one other of bombarding the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, which continues to operate despite the conflict.
Russian emergency services shared photographs of plant damage after both sides accused bombardment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy termed the bombardment “Russian nuclear horror,” while the UN-backed IAEA voiced alarm about the plant’s safety and urged for quick access.
The @iaeaorg team must go to Zaporizhia just as we did to Chornobyl and South Ukraine earlier in the year. We can put together a safety, security and safeguards mission and deliver the indispensable assistance and impartial assessment that is needed.
— Rafael MarianoGrossi
“Any assault on a nuclear facility is suicidal,” Antonio Guterres said Monday.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator, claimed Russian shelling destroyed three radiation monitors and wounded one worker near Zaporizhzhia.
Moscow-backed rebels said Ukrainian soldiers launched the rounds, according to Russian news media.
Energoatom said the soldiers deployed at the site sought refuge in bunkers before the rounds hit on Saturday. Russian or Russian-backed forces have controlled the nuclear plant for much of the past year.
Zaporizhzhia was shelled as part of Russia’s continuous aerial assault against Ukraine’s troops and Moscow’s invaders. Dozens of frontline towns in southeast Ukraine were attacked over the weekend, says D’Agata.
Russian missiles and artillery hit Mykolaiv, southwest of the nuclear facility and near Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Despite the violence, additional ships bringing food have left various ports, including Odesa.
As of Monday, 10 additional ships were authorised to depart, but 20 million tonnes of grain remain waiting to get out under an agreement signed last month between Russia and Ukraine.
While ships slowly chip away at the backlog, Ukrainian farmers in front-line towns and villages risk their lives to gather this year’s harvests.
D’Agata says the tug-of-war over Ukraine’s grain may have moved in its favour with the export deal, but millions of tonnes of wheat, maize, and other food essentials are still stacking up on farms in the area.
Yurri Yalovchuk told CBS News that if the grain trade fails, so would his farm north of Odesa.
He informed D’Agata, “We don’t trust Russians.” They may launch a missile at any time.
He planned to send off this year’s harvest before clearing last year’s backlogged harvests since his grain is worth more when it’s fresh and he had nowhere to keep it.
Yalovchuk’s crop from last year is likely among the millions of tonnes of food languishing in Ukrainian storage.
Russia’s military target farmers’ fields, farms, and storage facilities in the south and east as they harvest this year’s harvests. D’Agata said some farmers use flak jackets.
Whole fields of crops have been destroyed as the two sides exchange fire, destroying families’ livelihoods and starving some of the world’s hungriest people.