Thursday 11 August 2022 07:43 PM Radiation fears in Ukraine over fighting at nuclear power plant: Smoke seen ... trends now
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other on Thursday of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as fears rise over another nuclear catastrophe 37 years on from Chernobyl.
Both Moscow and Kyiv said there were five rocket strikes near a radioactive material storage area at the plant, Europe's biggest nuclear facility which has been a focus of renewed fighting in recent days.
Ukraine's nuclear agency Energoatom said later there had been fresh Russian shelling near one of the plant's six reactors that had caused 'extensive smoke' from a grass fire and 'several radiation sensors are damaged'.
The plant, which is in Russian hands, is on the south bank of the River Dnipro which divides the warring armies and where some of the fiercest fighting is raging. Ukraine has accused Moscow of basing hundreds of soldiers and storing arms there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russia could cause an incident 'even more catastrophic than Chernobyl' - a reference to the nuclear disaster in then Soviet Ukraine in 1986.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres also said in a statement that continued hostilities around the facility could 'lead to disaster'.
This image purports to show smoke rising from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant today
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other on Thursday of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as fears rise over another nuclear catastrophe 37 years on from Chernobyl
Both Moscow and Kyiv said there were five rocket strikes near a radioactive material storage area at the plant, Europe's biggest nuclear facility which has been a focus of renewed fighting in recent days. Pictured: A Russian serviceman guards in an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control
The plant (pictured), which is in Russian hands, is on the south bank of the River Dnipro which divides the warring armies, and where some of the fiercest fighting is raging
Both Moscow and Kyiv said there were five rocket strikes near a radioactive material storage area at the plant, Europe's biggest nuclear facility which has been a focus of renewed fighting in recent days
A rocket fragment after shelling is seen near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, which the Russian Ministry of Defence claims was fired by the Ukrainian military
He urged both sides 'to cease immediately' all military activity near the power plant.
The US State Department later on Thursday said the United States supported
