Russia and Ukraine traded claims of rocket and artillery attacks on or near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Sunday, intensifying fears the fighting could cause a massive radiation leak.
Ukraine’s atomic energy agency painted a grim picture of the threat on Sunday by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russian forces have controlled since the war began.
Attacks were reported over the weekend in Russian-controlled territory adjacent to the plant along the left bank of the Dnieper River and along the Ukrainian-controlled right bank, including the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the facility.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces attacked the plant twice in the past day and that shells landed near buildings that store reactor fuel and radioactive waste.
“One projectile fell in the area of the sixth power unit, and the other five in front of the sixth unit pumping station, which provides cooling for this reactor,” Konashenkov said, adding that radiation levels were normal.
The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency also reported Sunday that radiation levels were normal, that two of the Zaporizhzhia plant’s six reactors were operating and that while no complete assessment had yet been made, recent fighting had damaged a water pipeline, which has since been repaired.
A local official said that in another apparent attack Sunday, Russian forces shot down an armed Ukrainian drone targeting one of the Zaporizhzhia plant’s spent fuel storage sites. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed regional official, said on the Telegram messaging app that the drone crashed onto a building’s roof, not causing significant damage or injuring anyone.
Nearby, heavy firing during the night left parts of Nikopol without electricity, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor. Rocket strikes damaged a dozen residences in Marhanets, according to Yevhen Yevtushenko, the administration head for the district that includes the city of about 45,000.
Zaporizhzhia, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) up the Dnieper River from the nuclear plant, also came under Russian fire, damaging dozens of apartment buildings and homes and wounding two people, city council member Anatoliy Kurtev said. Russian forces struck a Zaporizhzhia repair shop for Ukrainian air force helicopters, Konashenkov said.
Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.
Downstream from the nuclear plant, Ukrainian rockets hit the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and the adjacent town three times on Sunday, said Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russian-installed local administration.
The plant’s dam is a major highway across the river and a potentially key supply route to Russia. The dam forms a reservoir that provides water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The radiation map issued by Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom showed that, based on wind forecasts for Monday, a nuclear cloud could spread across southern Ukraine and southwestern Russia. The map’s publication may have been intended to warn that their own country would suffer if Russian forces were responsible for a radiation leak. In the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, the world’s worst atomic power catastrophe, radiation spread from Ukraine to several neighbouring countries.
Last week, authorities began distributing iodine tablets to residents living near the Zaporizhzhia plant in case of radiation exposure. Much of the concern centers on the plant’s nuclear reactor coolant systems. The systems require electricity, and the plant was temporarily taken offline Thursday due to what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line. A failure in the cooling system could cause a nuclear meltdown.
Intermittent shelling has damaged the infrastructure of the power station, Energoatom said on Saturday.
“There are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances, and the danger of fire is high,” he said.
The IAEA has tried to agree with Ukrainian and Russian authorities to send a team to inspect and protect the plant, but it was not clear when the visit might occur.
In eastern Ukraine, where Russian and separatist forces are trying to take control, shelling hit the large and strategically important cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, with no reported casualties, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region. Konashenkov said Russian missile strikes killed 250 Ukrainian soldiers and reservists in and near Sloviansk. Ukrainian officials did not comment on the claim, keeping with their policy of not discussing losses.
Kostiantyn Daineko, a resident of Sloviansk, told The Associated Press that he was falling asleep when an explosion blew out the windows of his apartment.
“I opened my eyes and saw the window frame flying at me, the frame and pieces of broken glass,” he said.
Russian and separatist forces control much of the Donetsk region, one of two that Russia has recognized as sovereign states.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed again on Sunday to retake breakaway areas.
“The invaders brought degradation and death, and they think they are there forever,” Zelenskyy said Sunday in his late-night video address. “But it’s a temporary thing for them. Ukraine will return. Safely. Life will return.”