Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned Russian soldiers who shoot at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant or use it as a shooting range that they will be a “particular target” for Ukrainian forces.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has urged for the construction of a demilitarised zone at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility in southern Ukraine, amid fears of a nuclear disaster following repeated shelling in recent days, which Russia and Ukraine blame on one another.
Zelenskiy, who did not provide any specifics, maintained his belief that Russia was using the facility, which it took early in the war but is now managed by Ukrainians, as a kind of nuclear blackmail.
Zelenskiy said in an evening address, “Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant occupies the south bank of the Dnipro River’s enormous reservoir. Ukrainian soldiers commanding towns and cities on the other bank have been heavily bombarded by Russian forces.
Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine’s presidential adviser, accused Russia of “hitting the part of the nuclear power plant where the energy that powers the south of Ukraine is generated.”
“The goal is to disconnect us from the (plant) and blame the Ukrainian army for this,” Podolyak posted on Twitter.
A foreman at the facility was killed by Russian shelling while walking his dog near his house in Enerhodar on Sunday, according to Ukraine’s state-run nuclear business Energoatom.
Local Russian-installed official Vladimir Rogov claimed on Telegram that Ukrainian soldiers bombarded the city and killed the guy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is attempting to investigate the facility, has warned of a nuclear tragedy if the violence does not cease. Nuclear specialists are concerned that violence would harm the plant’s spent fuel pools or reactors.
As the conflict raged on, more ships carrying Ukrainian grain departed or planned to leave as part of a late-July agreement aimed at alleviating the world’s food crisis.
An Ethiopia-bound shipment, the first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was preparing to depart in the coming days, while sources reported the first grain ship to leave Ukraine under a United Nations arrangement was approaching Syria.
Read More – UN Chief Calls For discontinuation Of Military Activity Near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Plant
