United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the recent firing of artillery and rockets around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in central Ukraine as “suicide” as Ukraine and Russia have exchanged blame for both attacks.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of firing rockets at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Sunday, further raising fears of an accident a day after the United Nations watchdog warned that fighting at the occupied complex risks a “nuclear disaster”.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is the largest in Europe and occupies a sprawling site on the Dnipro River. It has continued to operate at a reduced capacity since Russian forces captured it in early March, and Ukrainian technicians are still working.
“Any attack on nuclear power plants is a suicidal thing,” Guterres told reporters in Tokyo.
The rockets fired late Saturday struck near a dry storage facility, where 174 drums of spent nuclear fuel are kept, according to Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear power company. The explosions blew out windows in parts of the plant and one worker was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds.
It was the second time in as many days that the plant had been hit.
Ukrainians say several Russian assaults resisted in Donetsk: The Ukrainian military said Sunday it had inflicted losses on Russian forces in several parts of Donetsk and repelled their efforts to advance elsewhere.
In a briefing, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russian forces tried to carry out several assaults in Donetsk against several settlements near Sloviansk, but were pushed back by Ukrainian forces.
Russia may be preparing to bring more forces to frontline, Zelensky adviser warns: Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called on Germany to help boost its arms supply in an interview with German newspaper Tagesspiegel on Sunday , according to the president’s office.
Podolyak said in the interview that Ukraine needs “the supply of as many modern weapons as possible” and called for the participation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“The more and faster we have heavy weapons, the sooner we can stop this war,” he said, warning that he believes Russia wants to “freeze the conflict for six months to bring new troops and weapons to the front.” there have been no official indications of this from the Russian side.
Zelensky rules out future talks if Russia holds referendums in Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not hold future talks if Russia holds referendums in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, something officials in the Ukrainian territories have already said Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region under Russian control. they would
“Every week there are more reports that the occupiers are preparing for pseudo-referendums in the occupied areas of the south of our country,” Zelensky said in his late-night speech on Sunday. “I want to say one very simple thing: everyone who helps the occupiers in any way to realize their intention will be held accountable. They will be held accountable to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian grain-laden ships head for international markets: Ukraine’s grain export through Black Sea ports continued on Monday, with the first ship leaving the southern port of Yuzhnyi under a UN agreement to help alleviate the world food crisis caused by the war.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said the bulk carrier Sacura had become the first ship to leave port since the early days of the war in February.
The Sacura and Arizona, which left the southwestern city of Chornomorsk on Monday, are carrying 60,000 metric tons of agricultural products to international markets. Meanwhile, one of the first ships to leave the Black Sea carrying Ukrainian grain, the Polarnet, has arrived in Turkey, according to Ukrainian officials.