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(Bloomberg) — Safety at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is deteriorating after a drone strike Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency monitors warned.
On Saturday, a drone exploded close to essential cooling water sprinkler ponds about 100 meters from the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing a power supply to the plant, IAEA monitors said in a statement.
“Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. “I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides.”
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Military activity is once again intensifying near Zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russia seized the facility in March 2022, shortly after it launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Since then, the plant has been disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid.
Grossi has also held discussions with officials over fighting near an operational nuclear power plant within Russia and has offered to visit the facility, the IAEA said. Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk border region this month, taking over dozens of villages and towns in the first foreign military intervention in Russia since World War II.
On Sunday, Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said the country’s forces struck another bridge in the Kursk area, as Kyiv sought to press its advantage. Over 1,700 people were evacuated in the past day from areas bordering Ukraine in the Kursk region, the Tass news agency reported, citing Russia’s emergencies ministry.
Ukrainian forces also attacked a fuel depot in Russia’s Rostov region overnight in a joint operation by military intelligence and armed forces, according to a separate statement. Russian air defense repelled the drone attacks but falling debris caused a fire at a fuel depot at industrial warehouses, according to the governor of Rostov region. There were no casualties.
Even as Ukrainian troops continued their push into Kursk, Kremlin forces kept up their offensive along Ukraine’s eastern frontline. Kyiv’s troops are under the most pressure in Donetsk region as Russia attempts to gain more ground near the cities of Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Chasiv Yar, according to a statement from Ukraine’s General Staff.
Over the past week, Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 40 missiles, 750 glide bombs and 200 explosive-laden drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement on Telegram on Sunday.
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