New radiation fears in Ukraine as fighting erupts at nuclear power plant: Smoke is seen rising from Zaporizhzhia as both sides accuse each other of shelling

• Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant 
• Fighting around the nuclear station could create a new Chernobyl-style disaster 
• Radioactive material storage area hit by five rocket could spark ‘dirty bomb’ 
• Radiation levels normal, Russia claims, while sensors damaged, Ukraine claims

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

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

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 calls by the UN and others to establish a demilitarised zone around the plant.

‘We continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations at or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine, and support Ukrainian calls for a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant,’ said a State Department spokesperson. 

The Russians pointed the finger at Ukrainian forces ‘once again’ striking the nuclear power plant Thursday, according to Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Moscow-installed puppet regime, who made the claim on messaging app Telegram.

‘No contamination has been recorded at the station, radiation levels are normal,’ said Yevgeny Balitsky separately, the head of the Moscow-backed administration.

He accused the Ukrainian army of seeking to destroy the nuclear waste storage facility ‘in order to create some kind of dirty bomb on our territory’. 

He said among the infrastructure hit Thursday was a radioactive isotope storage facility. ‘Staff at the station have been instructed to move to protected premises,’ he added. 

Speaking separately on Russian state television, Balitsky said the station was home to ‘thousands of tonnes of nuclear waste’. 

An accident ‘will make the territory unlivable,’ he added. 

Ukraine’s nuclear agency, Energoatom, hit back, claiming that ‘the Russians shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant again,’ in a statement.

‘Five strikes were recorded in the area of the station commandant’s office, which is located next to the welding area and the storage of radiation sources,’ it goes on to say. 

Ukrainian homes in the Zaporizhzhia region, where some of the fighting is fiercest, have been destroyed by Russian shelling

A view of a destroyed house after Russian shelling in a village of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine on August 10

A woman is seen near a damaged houseafter Russian shelling in a village of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, yesterday

The dangers of a new radiation disaster come ahead of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to address global concerns over the facility due today. 

The Soviet-era plant in southern Ukraine was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of March – shortly after Moscow launched its invasion and has remained on the frontline since then.

‘Russia has turned the nuclear station into a battlefield,’ Zelensky said, addressing a Ukraine donors conference in Copenhagen by video link.

He called for stronger sanctions against Russia saying it was a ‘terrorist state’ – on the same day that Latvian MPs adopted a resolution calling Russia a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’.

The statement said Russia’s actions in Ukraine constituted ‘targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people’ and said the use of violence against civilians should be considered ‘terrorism’.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed it as a ‘timely move’ and urged other countries to follow suit, while Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it ‘xenophobia’.

Latvia has also urged all EU countries to ban tourist visas for Russian citizens and said the measure should be extended to Belarusians because of the Belarusian regime’s support for the invasion.    

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