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Nuclear watchdog’s worries grow over Ukraine plant safety

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After the Moscow-installed governor ordered the evacuation of the city where most plant personnel live, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog expressed rising concern about the safety of a Russian-occupied nuclear power facility near the front lines of fighting in Ukraine.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi unsuccessfully lobbied Russian and Ukrainian officials to create a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to prevent a radiation leak.

Enerhodar is near to Europe’s largest nuclear facility. Russia has shelled Ukrainian-held settlements across the Dnieper River, while Ukraine has regularly shot at the Russian side. As Ukraine prepares to begin a long-promised counteroffensive to retake territory from Russia, violence has intensified.

On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said that Russian soldiers fired around 30 shells into Nikopol, which is virtually immediately opposite the factory, killing a 72-year-old lady and wounding three others.

Grossi warned Saturday that the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant location is becoming increasingly unstable and dangerous.

Grossi said Friday’s civilian evacuations from Enerhodar and 17 other communities by Russia-installed Zaporizhzhia governor Yevgeny Balitsky implied escalation.

He stated, “I’m extremely concerned about the plant’s very real nuclear safety and security risks. The station needs reliable power for cooling systems to prevent a radiation disaster even though none of its six reactors are operational due to the war.

For months, analysts have speculated that Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive may target southern Zaporizhzhia to cut off Russia’s “land corridor” to the Crimean Peninsula and split Russian forces by pressing on to the Azov Sea coast.

Balitsky claimed Ukraine had increased strikes on the area in recent days.

Despite Russia’s nine-month siege, Ukrainian forces are still holding a position on Bakhmut’s western outskirts.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Sunday that Moscow’s forces had secured two more districts in the city’s west and northwest, but gave no details.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces accused Russia of deploying phosphorous in the city and published a video on Sunday showing the telltale white flames.

White phosphorus and other incendiary weapons can be employed for illumination or smoke screens, but international law prohibits their deployment in civilian areas. Chemical weapons specialist Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a retired British army colonel, said it was white phosphorous.

He called it a war crime to fire directly at Ukraine positions.

I assume the Russians are adopting unconventional techniques to burn the Ukrainian soldiers to death or make them escape because they failed to take Bakmut normally.

Russian soldiers haven’t responded, but they’ve denied Ukraine’s phosphorus munitions claims.

In the south, the aide to the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, a Russia-occupied coastal city, stated in a Telegram post Sunday that Moscow had escalated its transport of tracked vehicles through the city and into the front-line Zaporizhzhia region.

Petro Andryushchenko said more automobiles were crossing the city “every day.”

He shared a short video of large trucks moving armored vehicles on an expressway without stating where or when.

The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed Sunday that the evacuation ordered Friday had begun in Enerhodar, near the nuclear reactor.

The General Staff reported on Facebook that the first residents evacuated were those who became Russian citizens after Moscow captured the town early in the war.

They were moved 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast to the Russia-occupied Azov Sea shore.

Grossi said that operating staff of the nuclear power plant, whose six reactors are all in shutdown mode, had not been evacuated as of Saturday but that most live in Enerhodar and the situation has created “increasingly tense, stressful and challenging conditions for personnel and their families.”

He added that IAEA nuclear site experts “are continuing to hear shelling on a regular basis.”

“We must act now to prevent a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and environment,” Grossi warned. “Protect this major nuclear facility. I’ll keep pushing for everyone’s dedication to this crucial goal.”

According to a Sunday local administration Telegram post, Russian shelling on Saturday and overnight killed six civilians and wounded four in Ukraine’s southern Kherson area.

On Sunday morning, local Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported five civilians wounded in eastern Donetsk, the core of the violence in recent months.

A Kremlin-appointed local official alleged on Telegram early Sunday that Ukrainian drones assaulted Crimea’s major port overnight.

The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, posted that air defense systems shot down three of 10 Ukrainian drones that targeted the city. Razvozhayev denied damage.

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