Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of shelling giant nuclear power plant

ODESSA, UKRAINE — Concerns on Monday that the ongoing civil war in Ukraine could cause serious damage to Europe's largest nuclear power plant increased. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other ofshelling the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,as reported by CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Charlie Dagatha. War rages around it.

Russian emergency services released images of damage around the plant after both sides exchanged new accusations of shelling the compound.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said , denounced the new shelling as "Russian nuclear terrorism" as the IAEA, the UN-backed global nuclear watchdog, expressed serious concerns about the safety of the plant and called out its team. Inspectors are granted immediate access.

United Nations Secretary Antonio ``Any attack on a nuclear power plant would be suicidal,'' Chancellor Guterres warned Monday morning.

Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom reported that Russian artillery hit three radiation levels around storage facilities containing spent fuel rods at the Zaporizhia facility. He said a monitor was damaged and one worker was injured. Russian news outlets cited Moscow-backed rebels who control the territory for saying Ukrainian forces had fired artillery shells.

It has been in control of the nuclear power plant for most of the time, and troops based at the facility took refuge in bunkers before shelling hit Saturday, Energoatom said.

The shelling around Zaporizhia was just one example of an ongoing Russian aerial attack amid heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and Moscow's invading forces. As D'Agata reports, dozens of towns along the front lines in southeastern Ukraine came under attack over the weekend.

Russian missiles and artillery hit the city of Mykolaiv, southwest of the nuclear power plant and just north of Ukraine's main Black Sea port. attacked. Despite the fighting, moreships carrying vital provisionsleft these ports. 

About 10 more ships had been cleared to sail as of Monday, but D'Agata reported thatlast month, } An agreement has been reached between Russia and Ukraine.

While a slow but steady stream of ships is dwindling its backlog to deliver food to the world, Ukrainian farmers in frontline towns and villages are struggling to survive. are trying to procure food. Harvest this year.

According to D'Agata, the Ukrainian grain tug-of-war may now be tilting in Ukraine's favour, due to export agreements, but overflowing port silos and And millions more tons of wheat, corn and other staples are still piled up on farms in the region.

His Yurri Yalovchuk, a third-generation farmer, told his CBS News that if the grain trade collapsed, so would his farm just north of Odessa.

"We don't trust the Russians very much," he told D'Agata.

He said that his grain was worth more while it was still fresh and that he had no place to store it anyway, so last year's unprocessed crop

Last year's harvest in Yarovchuk, like that of hundreds of other Ukrainian farmers, was in the midst of a crisis. It is likely among the millions of tons of grain still stagnant in warehouses across the country.

But as farmers work to harvest this year's crop, Even so, Russian forces are attacking fields, farms, and storage facilities in the south and east. According to D'Agata, some have even started working on their land wearing bulletproof vests.

Entire fields burned, family lives wiped out as both sides exchanged fire,some of the world's most hungry people were starving. It isof critical food supply in the process.

Within:
• War
• Nuclear Power Plant
• Ukraine
• Russia
• Nuclear Attack
• Vladimir Putin