Ukraine war: Damage to nuclear plant would be suicide – UN chief
UN Secretary General António Guterres has said he is “gravely concerned” about fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
He made the comments during a summit with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv.
“Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” Mr Guterres warned.
It was Mr Zelensky and Mr Guterres’ first meeting since April, when Kyiv was hit by rockets during the visit.
Mr Erdogan echoed the UN chief’s concerns, telling reporters that he was worried about the danger of “another Chernobyl” disaster erupting at the plant.
In recent weeks the area around the facility, which Russia seized in March, has come under heavy artillery fire, with both Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other for the attacks.
Moscow is accused of turning the facility into an army base, with all three leaders urging the Russians to demilitarise the zone as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, local sources in the Russian occupied Crimean Peninsula reported a number of large explosions near the Belbek military airport.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian installed governor of Sevastopol, denied that anyone had been injured in the blasts and said no damage was done, despite videos circulating on social media appearing to show huge explosions lighting up the night sky.
The appeals come as Ukrainian staff, who are working at the plant under Russian direction, warned of a potential nuclear catastrophe at the facility, saying in the past two weeks it has become “the target of continuous military attacks”.
“What is happening is horrific and beyond common sense and morality,” staff wrote in a Telegram post.
Later on Thursday, an official Twitter channel used by the Ukrainian government said that members of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, had “urgently” left the facility, and an “unexpected day off” had been announced.
“Ukrainian intelligence officers believe that the Russians are preparing a provocation at the [facility],” Ukraine’s Centre for Information security tweeted.
“Following their extensive shelling… [Russian forces] could ‘raise the stakes’ and stage a real terrorist attack on Europe’s largest nuclear facility,” it said.
The BBC has been unable to verify the claims.
Shortly before these tweets, Mr Zelensky warned that “the world is on a verge of nuclear disaster” and condemned what he called “Russia’s irresponsible actions and nuclear blackmailing”.
Despite the concern, the site is said to be far more secure than the Chernobyl plant – the site of the worst nuclear incident in history. BBC.