Eva Deschamps / August 6, 2022
Russia on Friday denied responsibility for strikes near a nuclear reactor in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, in turn accusing the regime of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of nuclear terrorism.
Ukrainian armed formations carried out three artillery strikes against the territory of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the city of Energodar, the Russian military said in a statement, calling on international organizations to condemn the criminal actions of the Zelensky regime which carries out acts of nuclear terrorism.
For its part, Ukraine accused the Russians on Friday of carrying out strikes near a nuclear reactor at the plant, which was seized by Russian forces in March, shortly after Moscow began its offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor on 24 February. According to Ukraine's state-run Energoatom, which manages the country's nuclear power plants, a high-voltage line was damaged in the attack, triggering the shutdown of one of the reactors at the plant, Europe's largest.
For its part, the Russian military said that Ukrainian shells damaged a hydrogen pipe at the plant, causing a hydrogen fire that was quickly controlled. By a happy coincidence, the Ukrainian shells did not target (...) a nearby oxygen plant, preventing a larger fire from breaking out and a radioactive accident from occurring, the Russian statement assured. The Ukrainian strikes also caused a power failure and disrupted water supplies in Energodar, according to the same source.