The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine was rocked by a bombing on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, which warned that such attacks risked a major nuclear disaster.

More than ten explosions rocked Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Saturday night and Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported. Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of bombing the target, according to Reuters and Agerpres.

“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” said Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, whose team on the ground reported damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the nuclear power plant.

“The explosions happened on the site of this large nuclear power plant, which is absolutely unacceptable. Whoever is behind them must put an end to them immediately. As I have said many times, don’t play with fire!”, he added.

Repeated bombings of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, which Russia took control of shortly after its invasion in February, have raised concerns about the possibility of a major accident just 500km from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident since 1986, Chernobyl.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant supplied about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s February 24 invasion and was forced to operate on backup generators several times. It has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 reactors with water cooling and a moderator containing uranium-235.

The reactors are shut down, but there is a risk of the nuclear fuel overheating if power to the cooling systems is cut. The bombing repeatedly knocked out power lines.

Mutual accusations

Both Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of attacks on the nuclear plant several times during the conflict. On Sunday, they again accused each other, according to Reuters.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine of shelling power lines feeding the plant, while the official news agency TASS reported that some warehouses at the facility were damaged by Ukrainian shelling, citing an official representative of the Russian nuclear company Rosenergoatom.

“They bombed not only yesterday, but also today, they are bombing now,” said Renat Karchaa, adviser to the CEO of Rosenergoatom, adding that any artillery attack on a target is a threat to nuclear safety.

According to Karchaa, the projectiles were fired near the dry storage of nuclear waste and the building for fresh spent nuclear fuel, but at the moment no radioactive emissions have been detected, TASS reports.

For its part, the Ukrainian nuclear power company “Energoatom” accused the Russian military of bombing the nuclear power plant and stated that the infrastructure had been hit at least 12 times.

According to Energoatom, cited by Reuters, Russia has targeted the infrastructure needed to restart parts of the plant in an attempt to further limit electricity supplies to Ukraine.

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