“Powerful explosions” occurred near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement on Thursday night, almost a year after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
These explosions suggest “military activities near the site located on the front line of the ongoing conflict in the country,” continues Rafael Grossi.
“Almost daily in recent days, the IAEA team on site has reported similar events” to teams at the organization’s headquarters in Vienna, the statement read. Therefore, the IAEA director again calls for the establishment of a protection zone around the site.
Since the start of the war, the issue of this nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, has been a cause for concern. Especially when the site had been the target of several attacks in November.
Moscow denies
An adviser to the head of the Russian nuclear operator Rosenergoatom, Renat Kartchaa, considered Rafael Grossi’s statements unfounded, reports the Reuters news agency.
“(These statements) can only be qualified as provocation. Before transmitting this type of information, it must be verified and established whether they are based on rumours,” Russia’s Tass news agency quoted Renat Kartchaa as saying.
“On the one hand, they want to prove their usefulness. On the other, they continue to sow doubts in Western opinion about Russia’s ability to maintain nuclear security, ”he denounces.
“In the direction of Zaporizhia, the intensity of hostilities has increased considerably,” a leader of the Moscow-installed regional occupation authority, Vladimir Rogov, said on Telegram last week.
the The General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine announced that a Russian attack on the night from Wednesday to Thursday left 3 dead and 7 wounded in the Zaporizhia region.
Source: BFM TV
