Kyiv and Moscow have again accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian troops, in the direction of which new artillery fire was launched on Saturday, AFP, EFE and Agerpres agencies report.

“Limit your presence on the streets of Energodar! We have received information about new challenges from the Russian occupiers,” the Energoatom NAEC Telegram said, spreading a message from the local head of Energodar – the city where the station is located – who remained loyal to Kyiv. “According to the statements of local residents, bombings are again taking place in the direction of the NPP,” the same message reads.

For its part, the pro-Russian authorities, established in the territories of the Zaporizhzhia region controlled by Russian forces, accused the Ukrainian army of carrying out these new bombings.

“Energodar and Zaporizhzhya NPP are again under fire from (President of Ukraine Volodymyr) Zelenskyi’s militants,” Volodymyr Rogov, a member of the pro-Russian administration, also reported on Telegram. He added that the shells fell “in the areas located on the banks of the Dnipro and in the factory.”

In this area, the Dnipro River separates territories controlled by Ukrainian and Russian troops.

The pro-Russian authorities also said that because of the attacks, they had to stop one of the turbines of the Kakhovka HPP, located in the Kherson region, which borders Zaporizhzhia, which could have serious consequences for the operation of the nuclear power plant.

Several artillery barrages, which are not known who started them but which the two camps blamed on each other, have been aimed at the nuclear plant since last week, which is under the control of Russian forces, raising fears of a possible new Chernobyl.

The first strikes, on August 5, damaged, in particular, the transformer of the high-voltage power line, which led to the shutdown of the third reactor of the power plant and the activation of emergency generator sets.

The last shots before the Saturday shots damaged the radioactivity measuring station on Thursday.

Ukraine, with the support of its Western allies, demands the demilitarization of this area of ​​the plant and the withdrawal of Russian troops from there.

Experts say that compared to Chernobyl or Fukushima, the Zaporizhzhia station is better protected thanks to a separate cooling circuit and a special protective coating, although it is unlikely to withstand a targeted military attack.

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