MOSCOW: Moscow and Kyiv on Sunday traded accusations of shelling on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that Russia controls in southern Ukraine.

The UN atomic watchdog that has a team of experts at the plant — the biggest nuclear facility in Europe — said “powerful explosions” had occurred on Saturday and Sunday.

“Kyiv does not stop its provocations aiming at creating the threat of a man-made catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” the Russian army said in a statement on Sunday.

Despite the shelling, radiation levels “remain normal”, the army added.

UN watchdog says such attacks risk a major nuclear disaster

It said missiles exploded around a power line that feeds the plant, the fourth and fifth power units and “special building number 2”.

Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, told state-run agency TASS that the “special building” contained nuclear fuel.

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine fired shells at power lines supplying the plant.

However, Ukraine’s nuclear energy firm Energoatom accused the Russian military of shelling the infrastructure necessary to restart parts of the plant in an attempt to further limit Ukraine’s power supply. “This morning on November 20, 2022, as a result of numerous Russian shelling, at least 12 hits were recorded on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” it said.

UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said over a dozen blasts shook Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant on Saturday evening and Sunday. Such attacks risked a major nuclear disaster, the IAEA head said.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2022