The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossiwarned Thursday of the risk around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhyawhich runs on emergency generators after a Russian attack.
“Every time we play with fire and if we allow this situation to continue, one day our luck will change,” he warned Thursday before the council of governors of this body of the UN in Vienna.
Grossi called for “everyone to commit to protecting the security” of the Russian-occupied plant in southern Ukraine through the creation of a special zone.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europelost power on Thursday and is running on diesel generators, Ukrainian nuclear power operator Energoatom said.
The outage came during a new wave of Russian attacks in Ukraine that has killed at least nine people and led to power outages across the country.
In the attack, the Russian forces used hypersonic missiles among the 81 rockets launched in Thursday’s offensive against Ukraine, as confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry, while the Ukrainian military authorities acknowledged that their forces cannot effectively stop this type of arsenal.
Air raid sirens blared over the capital for seven hours as Ukrainian air defenses shot down drones and all manner of cruise missiles, though according to preliminary reports a hypersonic missile hit its target.
“Long-range air, sea and land precision weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missile systemthey hit key elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure, enterprises of the military-industrial complex, as well as power facilities that supply them with energy,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
“Unfortunately, a Kinzhal-type missile hit an infrastructure object”, declared Serhi Popko, head of the military authority of the kyiv region.
The Kinzhal (“dagger” in Russian) missiles are part of a suite of new hypersonic weapons that President Vladimir Putin unveiled in 2018 in a bellicose speech in which he said that they could reach almost anywhere in the world and evade an anti-missile shield developed by the United States.
“The last line of power between the NPP Zaporozhzia occupied and the Ukrainian power system was cut off as a result of rocket attacks,” Energoatom said.
The operator said it was the sixth time the facility had been disconnected from the power grid since Russian forces captured the plant last year.
The plant is being powered by diesel generators, which can provide the facility’s power needs for 10 days, it added. energoatom.
“The countdown has begun. If it is impossible to renew the station’s external power supply during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world may occur,” Energoatom said.
Russian authorities that control the plant said the generators diesel they had ignited after a “short circuit” in power lines, without providing details.
“There are sufficient fuel reserves to guarantee the operation of the generators,” they said in a statement, adding that all safety issues at the plant were in order.
the troops of Moscow seized the plant on March 4, 2022, a few days after invading Ukraine.
Moscow and kyiv have accused each other of bombing around Zaporizhzhyathe largest nuclear facility in Europe.
The nuclear agency of the UN, IAEA it deployed observers to the plant in September and is seeking to negotiate a demilitarized zone near the facility, but talks appear to have stalled.
At least five people died this Thursday in western Ukraine, victims of the massive bombardments carried out by Russiaas announced by the regional governor, Maksym Kozytsky,
According to the authorities, one of the Russian missiles destroyed three houses in a residential neighborhood in the Zolochiv district. “There may be more people under the rubble,” she added through his Telegram account.
President, Volodimir Zelenskyqualified as “miserable tactics” Russians, the attack that was carried out during the early morning.
“The enemy threw 81 missiles trying again to intimidate the Ukrainians, returning to his miserable tactics, ”said the president on Telegram. The attacks affected kyiv and nine other regions in the center, south and west of the country, he added.
(With information from AFP)
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Ukraine shot down 34 missiles during the massive bombardment launched by Putin
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant lost power after Russian attack
Source-www.infobae.com