Latest escalation comes ahead of UN team’s visit to area
KYIV
At least 10 people were injured when Russian forces shelled residential areas surrounding Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a Ukrainian official said Monday morning.
The shelling occurred in the city of Energodar, near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, said Mayor Dmitry Orlov on his Telegram account.
Two of the injured are in critical condition, he added.
The latest escalation came ahead of a visit from a team of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the power plant in southern Ukraine.
“The day has come, @IAEAorg’s Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) is now on its way. We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the nuclear watchdog’s chief, said in a tweet on Monday.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, said Russian forces “provoke and try to blackmail the world” by firing at Energodar.
Shelling around the power plant, which has been in Russian control since the start of the war, has raised concern over a nuclear disaster.
