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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Saturday of exploiting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station “for terror” after the facility’s operator reported significant damage.
Energoatom, the operator of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine’s south, said Saturday that military strikes had “seriously damaged” parts of the facility, forcing one of its reactors to shut down.
According to Energoatom, the strikes on Friday destroyed a nitrogen and oxygen station as well as an auxiliary facility.
As fighting raged in Ukraine’s east and south, pro-Moscow authorities in the Russian-occupied Kherson area reported the assassination of a top official.
And the head of Amnesty International’s Ukraine branch announced her resignation from the organisation following the publication of a contentious report accusing the country’s military of endangering people.
Kiev and Moscow have accused one other for the attacks on the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest atomic power complex.
In his evening address on Saturday, Zelensky accused Moscow of terrorism, stating, “Russian terrorists became the first in the world to utilise the power plant… for terror.”
The chief of the UN’s nuclear watchdog expressed concern over the shelling at the plant. The strikes highlight “the very real possibility of a nuclear calamity,” according to Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned the attack as “a serious and irresponsible infringement of nuclear safety laws and yet another evidence of Russia’s disdain for international norms.”
Another assassination
According to Russian state media, an official with the Russian occupying authorities in Kherson died in hospital on Saturday after being shot.
According to the report, Hura was ambushed in his home and shot multiple times.
In June, another Moscow-appointed official was slain in the same region, allegedly by a car bomb.
There have been a number of alleged assassination attempts and attacks on pro-Kremlin figures in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.
Despite Russia’s recent seizure of a significant chunk of the Kherson region and a portion of neighbouring Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian forces have regained some land.
In his speech on Saturday, Zelensky blasted Amnesty International, contrasting the rights organization’s charges against Ukraine’s military to its silence on Russia’s conduct.
Referring to the Zaporizhzhia plant strikes, he remarked that despite being “one of the most deadly crimes against Ukrainians and all Europeans… for some reason, there’s still no report or even a basic message from Amnesty International about it.”
Amnesty International provoked uproar in Ukraine on Thursday with a report accusing the military of putting civilians in danger by building camps in schools and hospitals and conducting counterattacks from densely populated regions.
Row over the amnesty report
In response, the head of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office resigned.
Pokalchuk claimed she sought to alert Amnesty’s high leadership that the study was biassed and did not adequately consider the Ukrainian position, but was disregarded.
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, expressed grief at her leaving and praised her work. However, the organisation stands by its report.
On Friday, Ukrainian officials said three grain ships had left the country after the first in months sailed on Monday as part of a pact to avert major food shortages.
Another five cargo ships are scheduled to leave the Ukrainian ports of Odessa and Chernomorsk on Sunday, according to a statement from the Joint Coordination Centre of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the organisation coordinating the operation agreed upon by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Nations.
