Russia-Ukraine trade charges over nuclear plant attack

Kyiv (Ukraine): Ukraine and Russia accused each other Wednesday of planning to attack one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants, which is located in southeastern Ukraine and occupied by Russian troops, but neither side provided evidence to support their claims of an imminent threat.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been a focus of concern since Moscow’s forces took control of it and its staff in the early stages of the war.

Over the last year, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog repeatedly expressed alarm over the possibility of a radiation catastrophe like the one at Chernobyl after a reactor exploded in 1986.

While Russia and Ukraine regularly traded blame over shelling near the plant that caused power outages, Ukraine has alleged more recently that Moscow might try to cause a deliberate leak in an attempt to derail Kyiv’s ongoing counteroffensive in the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region.

Citing the latest intelligence reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged Tuesday night that Russian troops had placed “objects resembling explosives” on top of several power units to “simulate” an attack as part of a false flag operation.

The “foreign objects” were placed on the roof of the plant’s third and fourth power units, according to a statement from the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.

“Their detonation should not damage power units but may create a picture of shelling from Ukraine,” the statement said. The International Atomic Energy Agency has officials stationed at the Russianheld plant, which is still run by its Ukrainian staff. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency’s most recent inspection of the plant found no mining activities, “but we remain extremely alert.”

“As you know, there is a lot of combat, I have been there a few weeks ago, and there is contact there very close to the plant, so we cannot relax,” Grossi said during a visit to Japan.

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised the specter of a potentially “catastrophic” provocation by the Ukrainian army at the nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest but has its six reactors shut down.

It still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features. (AP)