A nuclear power plant twice the size of Chernobyl was bombarded. Now, the fear of a "catastrophe" is coming.

KYIV — nuclear accidenton Monday after a bombardment attack on Russian-controlled forces } The outlook sounded an international alarm. Plantin Ukraine. This is, which is almost twice the size of Chernobyl.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told international inspectors a vast nuclear facility as the risk of disaster increased after the plant was damaged by a weekend strike but continued to operate. Asked to allow access to.

"All attacks on nuclear power plants are suicidal," he said in Tokyo on Monday after attending a ceremony in Hiroshima to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing. ..

Russia and Ukraine have blamed Europe for being responsible for the largest plant attacks.

Ukraine was in the Soviet era The site was bombarded by Russia on Friday and Saturday, demanding a demilitarized zone.

According to Energoatom, a Ukrainian state-owned energy company, the Russian attack damaged several buildings and took one reactor offline, increasing the threat of radiation leaks and fires.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it was the Ukrainian artillery that attacked the plant, damaging the high-voltage power lines that were servicing the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.

NBC News has not verified the claims of either side.

In any case, politicians around the world have warned of an increasing threat of disaster, and 54,000 people have lost power as a result of the bombardment, Energoatom's head said Saturday. The

plant is located in Zaporizhia, a region in southeastern Ukraine seized by Russian troops early in the war, and may now bein terms of Ukrainian counterattacks}

Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, called on the Russian army to withdraw and transfer control to a team of peacekeepers.

"What we need is for Russia to free the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and create some sort of non-military zone around it," he said on Saturday. The plant was stable, but radiation levels "can increase at any time," he added. He warned that there is a real risk of "nuclear disasters" and "radiation disasters" due to the large amount of spent nuclear material that rockets can collide with.

Energoatom claimed on Monday that Russian troops had set up land mines at the power plant, warning that further combat could cause catastrophe.

The company quoted Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the intelligence department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, telling NBC News that Ukraine has evidence of Russian troops mining the site. He said Ukrainian intelligence had been observing Russian soldiers transporting explosives and ammunition in the complex from the first day they hijacked them.

Moscow has not yet responded to the accusation. NBC News asked the Kremlin for a response.

Russia refuses to fire plants and replaces them An artillery brigade launching an attack from the nearby town of Marhanets', which accused Ukraine of the 44th Independent Artillery. According to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that Ukraine was responsible for "a new act of nuclear terrorism." The reactor complex was operating in "normal mode," according to Russian news agency Interfax, said Eugénie Archipel-Kee, head of the Russian-established municipality, on Monday. The Pentagon then said the high-voltage lines were damaged and power surges occurred, "staff were forced to reduce power from two of the site's six reactors to prevent confusion." rice field. "

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the bombardment" extremely dangerous "on a daily phone call with reporters on Monday, adding: Continuation of such artillery.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that he was "deeply concerned about the Russian military taking over the plant."

"There are credible reports," he said, "in the sense that Russia uses this plant as a human shield, but fires at Ukrainians from around the plant. It's a nuclear shield, and of course Ukrainians can't and won't fight back. " A terrible accident involving a nuclear plant.

Russian troopsseized the plantin March, more than a week after the invasion began, but it is still operated by Ukrainian staff. According to Energo Atom, there are about 500 Russian soldiers and 50 military vehicles in the factory.

The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine is considered the worst on record. More than 100,000 people living close to 19 miles needed to be evacuated, and the resulting radiation was detected throughout Europe. Officially, less than 50 people died as a direct result of Chernobyl, which is fiercely contested by scientists and environmental groups.

Ukrainian lawmakers say 3 million people could be killed and 51 million could be affected by radiation in the event of a serious incident involving the Zaporizhia nuclear power plantI'm guessing.

Josh Lederman reported from Kyiv and Patrick Smith from London.

Contributed by Reuters, Erica Anglo, Morgan Cesky and Julia Tarmazan.