KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukraine wants other countries to heed its warning that\u00a0Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant\u00a0to cause a radiation disaster, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of his government briefed international representatives on Thursday on the possible threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said he expected\u00a0other nations\u00a0to \u201cgive appropriate signals and exert pressure\u201d on Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur principle is simple: The world must know what the occupier is preparing. Everyone who knows must act,\u201d Zelenskyy said. \u201cThe world has enough power to prevent any radiation incidents, let alone a radiation catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The potential for a life-threatening release of radiation has been a concern since Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year and seized the plant, which is Europe\u2019s largest nuclear power station. The head of the U.N.\u2019s atomic energy agency spent months unsuccessfully trying to negotiate for a safety perimeter to protect the facility as nearby areas came under repeated shelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The International Atomic Energy Agency noted Thursday that the \u201cthe military situation has become increasingly tense\u201d while\u00a0a Ukrainian counteroffensive\u00a0that got underway this month unfolds in Zaporizhzhia province, where the namesake plant is located, and in an adjacent part of Donetsk province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday,\u00a0IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi\u00a0met with the director of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom to discuss the conditions at the plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rosatom director Alexey Likachev and other officials at the meeting in the Kaliningrad exclave \u201cemphasized that they now expect specific steps\u201d from the U.N. agency to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the plant and its adjacent territory, said a statement from the Russian corporation, whose divisions build and operate nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor of Zaporizhzhia, Yuriy Malashko, reported Friday that Russian shelling in the southern province killed two people in the past day. An attack that hit a transportation company in Kherson, the capital of Kherson province, killed two others on Friday, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia also fired 13 cruise missiles overnight at a military airfield in the western Khmelnytskyi province but Ukrainian air defenses intercepted them all, according to the air force. The attack came after Russian-appointed officials said that Ukrainian-fired missiles damaged a bridge that serves as key supply link to occupied areas of southern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s air-launched Kh-101 and Kh-555 missiles were sent from the Caspian Sea, the air force said. It did not identify the targeted airfield, but Ukraine has an air base near the Khmelnytskyi region\u2019s town of Starokostiantyniv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The base houses fighter jets and bombers, and five years ago it hosted a training exercise with air force personnel from the United States, Ukraine and seven European countries. It has come under Russian attack previously, including within the last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian forces so far have made only incremental gains in Zaporizhzhia province, one of four regions of the country that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last year. Putin has pledged to defend the regions as Russian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine is fighting to\u00a0force Russian troops out\u00a0of those regions and Crimea, which Moscow is using as a staging and supply route in the 16-month-old war. If the counteroffensive now in its early stages breaks the Russian defenses in the south, Ukrainian forces could attempt to reach a pair of occupied port cities on the Sea of Azoz and break Russia\u2019s land bridge to Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ukrainian leader\u2019s nighttime remarks Thursday on a possible attack on the nuclear power plant carried a tone of frustration with \u201ccountries that are pretending to be neutral even now\u201d in the war. He accused \u201canyone who turns a blind eye to Russia\u2019s occupation of such a facility\u201d of enabling Moscow to commit an act of evil and terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously, radiation does not ask who is neutral and can reach anyone in the world. Accordingly, anyone in the world can help now, and it is quite clear what to do,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, Russia claimed it was the target of \u201can information and propaganda campaign to discredit the country in the international arena.\u201d Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service, the FSB, said five people were arrested for trying to smuggle a kilogram of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 out of the country under the direction of a Ukrainian citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FSB said the material was to be used for \u201corganizing staged scenes of the use of weapons of mass destruction.\u201d Cesium-137 is often mentioned as of potential use in making a \u201ddirty bomb\u201d that could contaminate a wide area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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