Artillery shells again hit the Ukrainian city of Energodar on Sunday, not far from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, prompting Russia to ask the UN to ensure the safety of the site, DPA and Agerpres reported. Each side blamed the other for Sunday’s shelling, and both said a civilian had been killed.

Russian authorities claimed that “nationalists from Ukraine” struck the area, while the Ukrainian mayor of the city, Dmytro Orlov, spoke of a “criminal provocation” by Russia.

There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which has been occupied by Russian troops since March, has been under fire for several weeks.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are to inspect the site. However, the UN, Russia and Ukraine cannot agree on planning the visit.

Russian diplomat Mykhailo Ulyanov appealed to the UN to intervene to ensure the safety of the plant.

The UN Secretariat is tasked with “giving approval for a visit to the nuclear power plant by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Ulyanov told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency in an interview published on Sunday.

According to some sources, the UN has not yet allowed the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, to come to Ukraine not only for security reasons, but also because of a dispute over the route.

Grossi could travel under Russian protection through the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, but that would be seen as an insult by Kiev.

Ukraine accuses Russian troops of using the nuclear power plant as a fortress from which they shell the small towns of Nikopol and Marganets, on the other side of the Dnipro reservoir.

Russia claims that Ukraine is bombarding the plant with drones, heavy artillery and salvo fire systems.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin announced that it had hit dozens of targets in eastern Ukraine with missiles and artillery.

The shelling was concentrated in the Donetsk region, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported. In the neighboring Kharkiv region, according to Moscow, the village of Udi was captured and the PMM warehouse near Slovyansk was destroyed.

The General Staff of Ukraine in Kyiv reported intense shelling in the east and south of the country. In the Donetsk region, the attempt of Russian troops to enter Slovyansk was rejected, he said.

In general, it was noted in Kyiv that the situation has hardly changed.

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