Kiev has shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) again to create a threat of a nuclear disaster, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
"The Kiev regime continues provocations in order to create a threat of a technogenic nuclear catastrophe at the ZNPP. Over the past day, two incidents of shelling of the NPP's territory by artillery units of the Ukrainian armed forces were recorded," the ministry told reporters .
The ministry clarified that a total of nine shells were fired, three of which fell in the area of a special building of the ZNPP, which stores new TVEL nuclear fuel and solid radioactive waste. Consequently, pipelines were damaged by shell fragments.
As a result of the second strike, one shell fell next to the ZNPP's sixth power unit, and five others landed opposite the sixth block pumping station, which provides cooling of the reactor.
"The shelling by the Ukrainian artillery of the NPP was carried out from the area of the village of Marivka, Dnipropetrovsk region. During the counter-battery struggle, the units of the Ukrainian armed forces that fired at the NPP were suppressed by retaliatory fire," the ministry added.
Later in the day, the authorities of the Zaporizhzhia city of Enerhodar told Sputnik that a kamikaze drone was shot down by the Russian armed forces over the nuclear power plant. The drone is said to have been targeting the nuclear waste storage facility.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24 after the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk republics applied for help in fending off Ukrainian forces. The international community has since been voicing concerns over the safety of the country's operational power plants -- Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and South Ukraine -- and possible nuclear incidents. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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