Rosatom chief says Ukraine attacked two sites at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
The strike follows damage reported days earlier to a radiation monitoring station at the same plant.
Published
Map: Ukraine, marking Zaporizhzhia
The head of Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom said Ukraine attacked two sites at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overnight. No further detail on casualties, damage or the plant's current power and radiation status was given.
The strike comes after a Russian strike on a cargo ship in the Black Sea on Sunday. Russia's defence ministry has said it will intensify strikes on Kyiv and other regions, linking the threat to President Zelenskiy's pledge to keep hitting Russian oil refineries. Zelenskiy has said Ukraine will continue striking refineries but not civilian targets, and that Ukrainian forces have stabilised the front near Donetsk under an operation called Vivaldi.
Russian strikes killed at least six people across Ukraine and damaged a bridge in Kyiv on Saturday, with Moscow saying it would keep up what it calls mass retaliatory strikes. Moldova has reported Russian weapons crossing into its airspace.
The attack adds Zaporizhzhia itself to a conflict that has already widened through Black Sea shipping strikes, refinery hits on both sides and bridge damage in Kyiv, with Moscow and Kyiv trading accusations of intensified strikes rather than moving toward the energy and grain ceasefire floated last month. A radiation monitoring station at the plant was already reported damaged on September 22, and this latest strike narrows further the margin for an accident that neither side says it wants.