his head International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, IAEA) Rafael Grossi alleged “deliberate and targeted” fire against him Zaporozhye NPP in Ukrainethe largest in Europe, with a request to “stop this madness.”

Russia and Ukraine yesterday again accused each other of bombing the area where the nuclear power plant is located, in the southern part of Ukraine, occupied by the Russian army.

“There were explosions on the territory of this large nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable,” Grossi told the French television channel BFMTV.

“Whoever is behind this must be stopped immediately. As I have repeatedly said: you are playing with fire! “People who do this know what they are getting into. It’s completely deliberate, purposeful.”

For several months, Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling the area around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which is located not far from the front line.

The IAEA said in a statement that about a dozen strikes were carried out in the area around the plant over the weekend.

The Russian Defense Ministry stated that “the Kyiv regime does not stop provocations in order to raise the threat of a catastrophe at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.”

The ministry also added that on Saturday and Sunday, Ukrainian forces fired on the station with more than twenty “long-range mortars.”

Mortars exploded between Units 4 and 5 and targeted the roof of a “special building” located nearby, the same source said.

The storage of nuclear fuel is located in a “special building”, explained a representative of the Russian nuclear energy company Rosenergoatom.

“Nuclear blackmail”

For its part, the Ukrainian Atomic Energy Agency accused Russia of bombing the territory of the nuclear power plant.

“On the morning of November 20, 2022, after new Russian bombings, at least 12 hits were recorded at the site of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant,” Energoatom noted, accusing the Russians of “once again engaging in nuclear blackmail and putting the whole world at risk. “danger”.

The IAEA, which has two inspectors at the station, has begun assessing the situation. “The damage was done in quite sensitive areas,” Grossi assessed, while specifying that nuclear reactors were not damaged, but “mainly the area where new and spent nuclear fuel is located.”

Kherson and Donetsk

In his daily address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday evening that nearly 400 Russian shellings had been recorded in eastern Ukraine during the day.

“The most fierce battles, as before, were in the Donetsk region. Although the shelling has decreased today as the weather worsens, the number of Russian bombings, unfortunately, remains extremely high,” the Ukrainian president lamented.

“In the Luhansk region we are moving slowly with battles. So far, almost 400 artillery strikes have been recorded in the east since the beginning of the day,” Zelensky added.

Meanwhile, in southern Ukraine, in Kherson, where Russian troops recently withdrew, residents who spent eight months under occupation are now facing more Russian bombardments.

The city of Kherson remains without electricity, running water and heating.

Source: AFP, Reuters, APE-MPE.