DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — On Saturday, battles raged near a sprawling nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, despite warnings from nuclear safety watchdogs earlier this week that conditions were risky and “getting out of control”.
The Russian army has used the factory in Zaporizhzhya, the largest in Europe, as a base to attack the Ukrainian-controlled city of Nikopol across the river.
On Saturday, it fired a salvo of Grad rockets that damaged 11 apartment buildings and 36 private houses and injured three people, the Ukrainian army said.
The attack also cut off electricity, water and natural gas supplies in the city, where residents have fled the artillery strikes and associated risk of radiation, the Ukrainian military said.
Russian forces began conducting artillery strikes from the plant about a month ago, and the Ukrainian military has said it cannot fire back over concerns it could hit a reactor at the plant, causing a radiation disaster.
Ukraine has also accused the Russians of causing explosions at the factory intended to upset European allies over nuclear safety and discourage Ukraine’s armaments.
Outrage over nuclear safety violations – Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday that “every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” – has done nothing to expel the Russian military from the site. The fighting continues daily, with explosions in the early afternoon on Friday. Mr Grossi called conditions at the factory “out of control”.
Mr Grossi said he was much more concerned about Zaporizhzhya than about Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, also in Ukraine, which radiated the environment and endangered Europe.
“Chernobyl, I think we’re okay,” Mr Grossi said, noting that his agency had regularly inspected the plant and repaired sensors for radiation monitoring and other detection equipment.
But the IAEA has been denied access to important parts of the reactors in Zaporizhzhya because the occupying Russian forces and surrounding shelling make it too dangerous for inspectors. That raises the prospect that if damage is done to the facility, it could be difficult at best to estimate the danger, he added.
In his late-night address to Ukrainians on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted what he called the “brutal crime” of the Russian military using the nuclear power plant as a cover.
“The occupiers once again created an extremely risky situation for everyone in Europe,” said Mr. Zelensky, referring to the explosions at the factory earlier in the day. “This is the largest nuclear power plant on our continent. And any shelling of this facility is an overt, brutal crime, an act of terror.”
David E. Sanger contributed to the report from Weston, Vt.