Ukrainian officials are again warning of impending disaster after Russia intensified shelling of the Zaporizhia region – home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – over the past few days.
The Russian army said on Saturday it had carried out greater than 160 missile attacks within the southeastern region of Ukraine, where local authorities said a minimum of one woman was killed and two others were injured.
“During the last day, Russian missiles covered 21 towns and villages within the Zaporizhia region,” Oleksandr Staruk, the governor of the region, said in a Telegram. “Our communities survived 166 shellings. One other 18 destroyed houses were added to the register.
Meanwhile, the situation at a Russian-owned nuclear power plant within the region is deteriorating, Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.
![Smoke rises as rescuers from Donetsk work on the site of a destroyed shopping mall.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/NYPICHPDPICT000005261366.jpg)
![Local residents carry their belongings as they leave their home damaged by a nightly Russian missile attack.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/NYPICHPDPICT000005261236.jpg)
“The situation is definitely getting worse,” Galushchenko told Ukrainian television. “It’s getting worse not only due to mental state of the remaining Ukrainian specialists, but in addition due to condition of the equipment.”
Ukrainian staff stayed within the factory after it was occupied by Russian troops in March. The massive power plant has been a source of concern again and again since it had the potential for a nuclear catastrophe when there was fighting around it. He went offline several times. UN inspectors who visited the plant in September said the situation was “unsustainable”.
Energoatom, a Ukrainian nuclear energy company, said Russian forces continued to construct military fortifications on the plant, although they were unable to start out the station’s power units as a consequence of staff shortages after some 1,500 Ukrainian specialists were barred from entering once they refused to signing an agreement with Russian entities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, has also worked to create a secure zone across the plant.
“As this tragic war enters its second yr, we must proceed to do the whole lot in our power to avert the danger of a significant nuclear accident that may cause much more suffering and destruction to the people of Ukraine and beyond,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano. he said in an announcement earlier this month.