In recent weeks, Moscow and Kyiv have held each other responsible for the shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Now the Piwdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant is also coming under fire. “Russia is endangering the entire world,” warns President Selenskyj.
The Ukrainian power plant operator Energoatom has accused Russia of shelling the site of the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant last night. At 12:20 a.m. (11:20 p.m. CEST), the Russian army fired on the industrial area of ????the nuclear power plant, Energoatom wrote on Telegram. There was a “violent explosion” just 300 meters from the reactors.
According to the operator, the force of the explosion shattered around a hundred windows in the plant. Three high-voltage lines had to be switched off briefly. In addition, the system of a nearby hydroelectric power station was damaged. The group also published photos of a crater four meters in diameter and two meters deep. “The three reactors are currently in regular operation,” assured Energoatom. Also, no people were harmed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also blamed Russia for the explosion. “Russia is endangering the entire world. We have to stop it before it’s too late,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. He also provided black and white surveillance video of a heavy detonation.
The Piwdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant is around 100 kilometers northwest of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv and almost 300 kilometers south of the capital Kyiv. There are three reactors in operation with a net output of 2850 megawatts.
In the past few weeks, the repeated shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops, had already triggered great international concern. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the shelling.
