Shelling near Ukraine nuclear plant fuels disaster fears
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Russia’s plan to expand the size of its military is “unlikely” to have an impact on its war on Ukraine, UK's Defence Ministry assessed as the war enters 187th day.
A Russian military convoy is seen on the road toward the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia region in territory under Russian military control in southeastern Ukraine, on May 1, 2022.
(AP)
Monday, August 29, 2022Shelling near Ukraine nuclear plant fuels disaster fears
Russian forces have pounded Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, officials said, while reports of shelling around the facility fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.
Captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has been a major hotspot in the six-month conflict with both sides trading blame for recent shelling near the plant.
Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the plant is located, the chief of staff of Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said late on Sunday on his Telegram channel alongside a video of fire fighters dousing burning cars.
"They provoke and try to blackmail the world," chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.
Russia, Ukraine trade claims of nuclear plant attacks
Russia and Ukraine have traded claims of rocket and artillery strikes at or near Europe's largest nuclear power plant, intensifying fears that the fighting could cause a massive radiation leak.
Ukraine's atomic energy agency painted an ominous picture of the threat on Sunday by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russian forces have controlled since soon after Moscow's Ukraine war began.
Attacks were reported over the weekend not only in Russian-controlled territory adjacent to the plant along the left bank of the Dnieper River, but along the Ukraine-controlled right bank, some 10 kilometres from the facility.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said Ukrainian forces had attacked the plant twice over the past day, and that shells fell near buildings storing reactor fuel and radioactive waste.
In another apparent attack, Russian forces shot down an armed Ukrainian drone targeting one of the Zaporizhzhia plant's spent fuel storage sites, a local official said.
Russian troop expansion ‘unlikely’ to impact Ukraine war – UK
Russia’s plans to expand the size of its military is “unlikely” to have an impact on its war on Ukraine.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence update on the war that it was unclear whether Russia would make the increase by more recruitment or by rising the conscription.
“In any case, under the legislation currently in place, the decree is unlikely to make substantive progress towards increasing Russia’s combat power in Ukraine,” the statement said.
“This is because Russia has lost tens of thousands of troops; very few new contract servicemen are being recruited; and conscripts are technically not obliged to serve outside of Russian territory,” read the British statement.
US blasts 'cynical' Russia for blocking UN nuclear text
The US State Department said that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the south Ukraine plant and had blocked a draft agreement on nuclear non-proliferation because it mentioned such risk.
"After weeks of intensive but productive negotiations, the Russian Federation alone decided to block consensus on a final document" at the conclusion of the four-week NPT review conference, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement.
He said Moscow's move was done "in order to block language that merely acknowledged the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine," a major atomic facility that is currently occupied by the Russian military.
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Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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