The western city of Nicopolis has been under daily shelling for most of the past week, with people killed and buildings destroyed. The area is across the Dnieper River from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, and both Russian and Ukrainian officials accuse each other of bombing in violation of nuclear safety rules. Russian troops have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant since the first days of Moscow’s invasion, although the facility’s pre-war Ukrainian nuclear workers continue to operate it. Ukrainian military intelligence said on Saturday shelling by Russian troops damaged a pump station and a fire station at the complex. And Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, tweeted that people were leaving the area and showed a video of them leaving. Sky News was unable to geolocate the video. Zaporizhzhia’s governor has now called for the demilitarization of the plant – and for international agencies to enforce it. “The best option should be demilitarization,” said Oleksandr Starukh. “There should be a reaction on the part of the international structures. They should defend this position so that there are no weapons in or near the nuclear plant.” Image: A man stands inside a crater left by a rocket strike in the Zaporizhzhia region In his video speech, Mr Starukh added: “Sooner or later, the fact that troops and ammunition are there can lead to irreversible consequences.” He called for the enforcement of the rules of bodies such as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). “All these rules of war and all these rules developed by the IAEA, which controls all matters of nuclear safety, unfortunately, do not work and some of them are not effective and need to be fixed. “Thank God they didn’t bomb objects that pose a nuclear threat and the background radiation is within the normal range. “But at the same time, sooner or later, the fact that troops and ammunition are there can lead to irreversible consequences.” Explainer: What are the risks of a nuclear accident in Ukraine? He said there should be no “weapons inside or near the nuclear power plant…So that peaceful towns like Marchanets and Nikopoli don’t happen to be bombed under the cover of a nuclear plant.” His comments were echoed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his nightly address to the nation. Image: Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the Ukrainian nation “The occupiers are trying to intimidate the world in an extremely cynical way, using the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” he said. “They are actually hiding behind the factory to shoot at Nikopoli and (near) Marchanets. “Absolutely all officials of the terrorist state, as well as those assisting them in this blackmail operation with the nuclear plant, must be tried by an international court.” Rocket attack Meanwhile, across the country, the Russian military pounded other populated areas as Ukrainian forces pressed a counter-offensive to try to retake a held southern region, knocking out the last working bridge over a river in the Kherson region held by Russia. Three people were killed and 13 others injured on Friday in a Russian rocket attack in the city of Kramatorsk, according to the mayor. Kramatorsk is the headquarters of Ukrainian forces in the war-torn east of the country. The attack came less than a day after another 11 rockets were fired at the city, one of two main Ukrainian capitals in Donetsk province, at the heart of an ongoing Russian offensive to seize eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday its forces had taken control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts of Donetsk city that separatists in the provincial capital have claimed since 2014. Russian troops and Kremlin-backed rebels are seeking to seize Ukrainian-held areas north and west of the city of Donetsk to expand the separatists’ self-proclaimed republic. However, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday its forces had repelled an overnight advance on the smaller towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut.
