War in Ukraine, Day 169 | Strikes at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, “time is running out”, says the IAEA

(Kyiv) The site of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijjia, the largest in Europe, was bombed again on Thursday, Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of it, while the head of the International Agency for Atomic Energy asked for access “as quickly as possible” during an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

“The situation is getting worse […]several radiation sensors were damaged”, as was “the sewage pumping station”, noted the Ukrainian state company Energoatom, according to which strikes occurred near a reactor and “in the direct vicinity of ‘a repository of radioactive substances’.

“At the moment, no contamination has been detected at the station and the level of radioactivity is normal”, however affirmed Evguéni Balitski, the head of the civil and military administration set up in this region of the south. east of Russian-occupied Ukraine, pointing out that “several tons” of radioactive waste are stored there.

Energoatom pointed the finger at Russian forces, which seized the Zaporizhia power plant on March 4, just days after the start – on February 24 – of their offensive in Ukraine.

A pro-Russian official, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the regional administration installed by Moscow, on the contrary blamed “the fighters (of Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky”. He spoke of multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery fire from the right bank of the Dnieper, the great river that crosses the region, at the same location.

“No one was injured,” read the Russian and Ukrainian press releases, which report other projectiles falling near a nearby fire station.

Several bombings for which the two parties also reject responsibility, without it being possible to verify these statements from independent sources, had already occurred on the territory of the power station at the end of last week.

The strikes which continued overnight from Wednesday to Thursday on the front line also reached the surroundings of these highly sensitive installations.

” The situation is serious ”

“Unfortunately, instead of a de-escalation, even more worrying incidents have been reported in recent days, incidents which if continued could lead to a catastrophe,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, saying to himself. “gravely concerned about the situation in and around the plant”.

“It must be clear that any damage to Zaporizhia or any other nuclear site in Ukraine, or anywhere else, could have catastrophic consequences not only nearby but for the region and beyond. This is totally unacceptable,” he insisted.

“I asked everyone to use common sense and reason,” Mr. Guterres added, urging to “immediately cease” all military activity near the plant, not to “target” it and not to use its territory “in the context of military operations” and speaking out in favor of the creation of a “demilitarized perimeter to ensure the security of the area”.

A proposal with which Washington is clearly in total agreement: “the United States continues to call on Russia to cease all its military operations in and around nuclear power plants and to return full control to Ukraine”; moreover, they “support Ukrainian calls to create a demilitarized zone in and around the nuclear plant,” a State Department spokesperson said.

And this, just before the opening of an emergency meeting in New York of the UN Security Council to discuss this burning issue, at the request of Russia.

“The situation is serious and the IAEA must be authorized to carry out its mission in Zaporijjia as quickly as possible”, declared before this body Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for whom ” hurry up “.

“The whole world must react immediately to drive out the occupants of the Zaporijjia power plant”, for his part hammered the Ukrainian president in his daily video message.

“Only the total withdrawal of the Russians and the resumption of full control of Ukraine over the plant would guarantee nuclear security for all of Europe”, he continued, denouncing “Russian nuclear blackmail”.

Russian shelling

In Nikopol, in the south-east of Ukraine, about 100 kilometers from Zaporijjia, on the other side of the Dnieper, Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported three dead and nine wounded in nighttime launches. Russian Grad multiple rockets.

In the east, in the Donbass mining basin, the head of the military administration of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, announced in the morning that 11 civilians had been killed in the past 24 hours.

In addition, the Russians relentlessly shell Soledar, an industrial city of 11,000 inhabitants before the war, trying to drive out the Ukrainian army in order to advance towards the neighboring, larger city of Bakhmout.

Since Russian troops ended their operation in Kyiv at the end of March and withdrew from the outskirts of the capital, the Kremlin has made Donbass, partly controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists, its main objective.

The real Russian advance is very slow and the war has turned into artillery duels between two entrenched armies around a few localities.

“We are waiting for the armed forces to liberate the south of our country, including Mariupol. We are waiting for it and it will happen soon”, nevertheless dropped the mayor of this city-martyr, Vadim Boïtchenko.

A high-ranking Ukrainian officer, General Oleksiï Gromov, nevertheless admitted Thursday that “the enemy” had “doubled the number of its airstrikes” against the positions held by the soldiers of his country compared to last week, with the aim of “undermining their morale”.