(CNN) — Russian and Ukrainian officials blamed each other on Sunday for the recent bombing at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s national police said they have opened almost 45,000 criminal cases since February 24 once morest the Russian military. The charges include “violation of the laws and customs of war”, “invasion of the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine”, as well as “treason” and “subversion”, according to the authorities.
These are the latest news from Russia’s war in Ukraine on November 20, 2022:
Ukraine and Russia blame each other for bombing Zaporizhia
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on October 14. (Credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Archyde.com)
Ukraine and Russia blamed each other on Sunday for the recent bombings at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Ukraine’s national nuclear power company, Energoatom, said in a statement Sunday that Russian shelling has hit the plant’s infrastructure more than 12 times.
“As a result, the communication overpasses with special bodies, chemically desalinated water storage tanks, the steam generator purge system, auxiliary systems of one of the two diesel engines of the entire station and other infrastructure equipment were damaged. from the station,” Energoatom said. “Three impacts were also recorded near the ‘Raiduha’ (‘Rainbow’) substation.”
Energoatom said that “the nature and the list of damaged equipment” at the plant indicate that the goal was to disable “exactly the infrastructure that was necessary to launch power units 5 and 6 and resume electricity production from the Zaporizhia NPP.” for the needs of Ukraine”.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also reported shelling at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Saturday and Sunday, saying it was the result of artillery fired by the Ukrainian army.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the shelling was carried out from the area of the city of Marganets, near Dnipro, controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “The enemy’s firepower was suppressed by return fire from Russian artillery units,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The radiation situation in the area of the nuclear power plant remains normal,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation , Rosatom, will assess the possible damage.
CNN cannot verify the claims by Energoatom and the Russian Defense Ministry.
The IAEA said in a statement Sunday that powerful explosions rocked the plant area Saturday night and Sunday morning. More than a dozen explosions were heard in a short time on Sunday morning local time “in what appeared to be renewed shelling both near and at the site” of the plant, the IAEA said.
Almost 45,000 open criminal cases once morest the Russian army
Ukraine’s national police reported Sunday that 44,662 criminal cases have been opened since February 24 related to what it called “crimes committed by the Russian army.”
The charges include “violation of the laws and customs of war,” “invasion of the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine,” as well as “treason” and “subversion,” authorities said in a statement.
To date, a total of “47 places where the Russians illegally detained and tortured Ukrainian citizens” have been discovered in the vacated regions of Sumy, Chernigov, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv, according to the statement.
A bit of context: Outside organizations, including United Nations representatives, have documented alleged atrocities at the hands of Russian service members in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, a report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe found that patterns of violent acts by Russian forces in Ukraine qualify as crimes once morest humanity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed such investigations as “undoubtedly fake work” by Ukraine’s Western allies.
