“They not only shelled yesterday, they are shelling today, shelling right now. As of now, about 15 hits at nuclear power plant facilities have been recorded. Any artillery strikes on the nuclear plant put nuclear safety at risk,” Karchaa was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.
Russia’s ministry of defence has accused the Ukrainian army of shelling the facility, which is under Moscow’s control.
“Thank God there has been no radiation release,” Karchaa said, adding that no one was hurt.
“In what appeared to be renewed shelling both close to and at the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, IAEA experts at the ZNPP reported to Agency headquarters that more than a dozen blasts were heard within a short period of time in the morning local time,” the IAEA said in a statement.
The IAEA team could see some of the explosions from their windows, the statement added, but the damage so far has not been critical for nuclear safety and security.
IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi has expressed concern over the renewal of hostilities around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site.
“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” Grossi said in a statement. “Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!”,
He added that the agency’s experts were in close contact with site management and will continue to assess and report on the situation.
Russia has accused Ukraine of shelling the plant, which it occupied soon after the invasion began on February 24.
Russian nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom says the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has come under Ukrainian shelling, but no radiation leak has been detected.
Adviser Renat Karchaa said the shells had been fired near a dry nuclear waste storage facility and a building that houses fresh spent nuclear fuel, Russian news agency TASS reported.
The facility was occupied by Russian forces soon after the war began. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the site that has damaged buildings and threatened a nuclear accident.
Moscow looking to control information in occupied territories: ISW
Russian authorities are working to establish control over the information space in occupied territories, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.
According to the US-based think-tank, Moscow’s authorities are dispatching propagandists to occupied territories to organise TV broadcasts and launch branches of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VDTRK).
Occupation authorities plan to use seized broadcasting property to facilitate broadcasting, including the 196-metre TV towers in Mariupol and Melitopol, ISW said.
