“Stronghold for Attacks”
Ukraine accuses Russian troops of using the nuclear power plant as a fortress for attacks. The pro-Russian separatists, in turn, accuse the Ukrainian armed forces of using shelling to persuade the West to intervene in the conflict. Russia’s state television showed pictures that are supposed to show rocket hits at the power plant.
The occupiers rejected calls by the G7 group to return the power plant to Ukrainian control. “It would be like putting a hand grenade in a monkey’s hands.”
UN chief warns
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a possible nuclear catastrophe shortly before a Security Council meeting on the situation around the nuclear power plant. If the “deeply disturbing incidents” surrounding the nuclear power plant continue, they “might trigger a disaster,” Guterres said on Thursday. Heavy shelling has been reported from the area around Zaporizhia for days. Any damage at Zaporizhia or any other nuclear facility in Ukraine “might have catastrophic consequences not only for the surrounding area but for the region and beyond,” Guterres said. “Unfortunately” there has been no de-escalation so far. He asked all sides “to show reason and common sense and not to do anything that might endanger the integrity and safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant”.
