Ukraine is calling for new anti-Russian sanctions as both sides blame each other over fresh shelling nearby the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
Concerns are increasing over attacks in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, seen here across the Dnipro river. Photo: BULENT KILIC
The world nuclear watchdog said the world risked a disaster if the fighting did not stop. Ukrainian and separatist officials have traded accusations over who is responsible for attacks close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian soldiers that if they use the site in the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, then they will become a "special target".
"If through Russia's actions a catastrophe occurs the consequences could hit those who for the moment are silent," he said in a late Monday-night address, calling for new sanctions on Russia's nuclear sector.
"If now the world does not show strength and decisiveness to defend one nuclear power station, it will mean that the world has lost."
Vladimir Rogov, a separatist official in Enerhodar, said about 25 heavy artillery strikes from US-made M777 howitzers had hit near the nuclear plant and residential areas in a two-hour period.
Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting the press service of Enerhodar's Russian-appointed administration, said Ukrainian forces had opened fire, with blasts near the power plant.
But head of the administration of the Nikopol district, which lies across the river from Enerhodar and remains under Ukrainian control, claimed Russian forces had shelled the city to try to make it appear that Ukraine was attacking it.
"The Russians think they can force the world to comply with their conditions by shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP (nuclear power plant)," Andriy Yermak, chief of the Ukrainian presidential staff, wrote on Twitter.
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
The United Nations said it had the logistics and security capacity to support a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if both Russia and Ukraine agreed.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held a phone call with Guterres to discuss conditions for the safe functioning of the plant, the ministry said on Monday.
"In close cooperation with the agency and its leadership, we will do everything necessary for the IAEA specialists to be at the station and give a truthful assessment of the destructive actions of the Ukrainian side," Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
But Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy head of the foreign ministry's nuclear proliferation and arms control department, was later quoted as saying it would be too dangerous for any IAEA mission to travel through the capital Kyiv to inspect the plant.
"Imagine what it means to pass through Kyiv - it means they get to the nuclear plant through the front line," RIA news agency quoted Vishnevetsky.
Ukraine, where Parliament on Monday extended martial law for a further three months, has said for weeks it is planning a counteroffensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson province, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its Feb. 24 invasion and still holds.
Death penalty
The conflict, which has caused millions to flee and killed thousands, has put major strain on relations between Moscow and the West.
A Russian-backed separatist court in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk charged five foreign nationals it said were captured fighting with Ukrainian forces with being mercenaries on Monday, Russian media reported. Three of the men could face the death penalty.
Russia late on Monday (local time) said British reconnaissance aircraft violated its air border at a peninsula east of Finland between the Barents Sea and the White Sea, and a fighter jet forced the British aircraft out of Russian airspace.
Britain's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation" to demilitarise its smaller neighbour and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and Western backers accuse Moscow of waging an imperial-style war of conquest.
Russian forces were engaged in shelling to advance on a wide variety of frontline positions in the east and south, Ukrainian forces reported on Monday evening (local time).
Even as the biggest attack on a European state since 1945 ground on, there was progress on a grain deal to ease a global food crisis created by the conflict, the most significant diplomatic breakthrough achieved since the war began.
The Joint Coordination Centre, set up by the United Nations, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, said it had approved the departure of the Brave Commander, the first humanitarian food aid cargo bound for Africa from Ukraine since the invasion. It is set to leave tomorrow.
A previous version of this article referred to a US-backed coup in 2014. This reference has now been removed.
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- Reuters