Fears of nuclear catastrophe grow after attack on Ukrainian power plant

Kyiv — The possibility of a nuclear catastrophe 34} A plant inUkraine sparked a heightened international alarm on Monday after artillery strikes hit Russian-controlled forces, andChernobyl's nearly 2 It's twice as big.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned international inspectors to give vast scrutiny amid growing fears of disaster after a weekend strike left a nuclear power plant damaged but still operating. They asked for permission to enter the nuclear power plant.

"Any attack on a nuclear power plant is suicidal," he said Monday in Tokyo after attending a ceremony in Hiroshima to mark his 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing. rice field.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged accusations over who was responsible for the attack on Europe's largest plant.

Ukraine is a Soviet-era siteIt was hit by Russian artillery fire on Friday and on Saturday, calling for the plant to be demilitarized. It damaged buildings, shut down one reactor, and posed a radiation leak and fire threat.

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

NBC News has not confirmed either side's claims.

In any event, politicians around the world have warned of a growing threat of disaster, with artillery strikes leaving 54,000 people without power, Energoatom chief said Saturday. rice field.

The factory is located in Zaporizhia, a region of southeastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces in the early stages of the war, andmay now be in sight of a Ukrainian counterattack. }

The head of Energoatom, Petro Kotin, called for the Russians to withdraw and hand over control to a team of peacekeepers.

"What is needed is for Russia to open up the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and create some sort of demilitarized zone around it," he said on Saturday. The power plant was stable, but radiation levels "could rise at any moment," he added. He warned that there is a real risk of a "nuclear and radiological disaster" from the large amount of spent nuclear material that a rocket could collide with.

Energoatom claimed on Monday that Russian forces had set landmines at the power plant, warning that further fighting could wreak havoc.

The company, citing Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the intelligence department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, told NBC News that Ukraine had evidence that Russian forces had mined the site. Told. He said Ukrainian intelligence had observed Russian soldiers transporting explosives and ammunition from the first day they occupied the complex.

Moscow has not yet responded to this accusation. NBC News reached out to the Kremlin for a response.

Russia denied shelling the plant, An artillery brigade launching an attack from the nearby town of Margarnet instead blamed the Ukrainian 44th attack. Ukraine was responsible for "a new act of nuclear terrorism," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, according to Russian state news agency Novosti.

The reactor facility was operating in "normal mode," according to Russian news agency Interfax, Russia-installed regional chief executive Yevgeny Baritsky said on Monday. Then the Defense Department said a high-voltage line was damaged and a power surge "forced him to cut power in two of his six reactors at the site to prevent disruption." said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the shelling "extremely dangerous" during a daily conference call with reporters on Monday, adding: Continuation of such shelling.

Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said last week that he was "deeply concerned about the takeover of factories by the Russian military,". Yes," he said, "Russia is using this plant as the equivalent of a human shield, but a nuclear shield in the sense that it is firing at Ukrainians from around the plant, and of course The Ukrainians cannot and will not fight back...a terrible accident involving a nuclear power plant."

Russian forces returned in March, just a week after the invasion began. seized factory, but is still run by Ukrainian staff. Energoatom says the factory has about 500 Russian soldiers and 50 of his military vehicles.

His 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the northern Ukraine city of Pripyat is considered the worst on record. More than 100,000 people living within about 19 miles of him had to be evacuated, resulting in radioactivity being detected across Europe. Officially, fewer than 50 people died as a direct result of Chernobyl, but scientists and environmental groups vehemently dispute this.

Ukrainian parliamentarians saythat 3 million people could die and 51 million could be affected by radiation in the event of a severe accident involving the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

Josh Lederman reported from Kyiv and Patrick Smith from London.

Contributions by Reuters, Erika Angulo, Morgan Chesky, and Yuliya Tarmazan.