United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the recent bombardment of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in central Ukraine as it further intensifies fears of a massive catastrophe in Europe amid the continued battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the surrounding area.
The UN chief told reporters Monday in Tokyo: "Any attack on nuclear power plants is a suicidal thing."
He also urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be granted access to the damaged plant and hoped that the attacks "will end."
"We fully support the IAEA in all their efforts in relation to creat(ing) the conditions for stabilization of the plant," Guterres noted.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex is situated in a major stretch of the Dnipro River. It has continued to operate at a reduced capacity since Russian forces took control of it at the beginning of March, with Ukrainian technicians continuing to do their duties, per CNN.
One employee was hurt by Russian shelling surrounding the facility on Saturday, according to a statement from Ukraine's state energy company Energoatom on Sunday.
"Timely detection and response in case of aggravation of the radiation situation or leakage of radiation from spent nuclear fuel casks are currently impossible," Energoatom stated, noting that three radiation monitoring sensors also sustained damage.
The company said: "This time a nuclear catastrophe was miraculously avoided, but miracles cannot last forever."
Kyiv and Moscow Point Fingers at Each Other
It was the second time the factory had been struck in as many days. For both assaults, Ukraine and Russia swapped the blame.
A Ukrainian missile, per the Russian-backed authorities in the nearby city of Energodar, allegedly came down 400 meters from one of the plant's reactors. The power plant and the city were both taken by Russian forces at the same time.
According to the local authority, and as reported by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the military forces of Ukraine attacked "with an Uragan 220 mm rocket missile cluster rocket."
"Administrative buildings and the adjoining territory of the dry cask storage facility were damaged by the projectiles. It is important to note that the place of impact of warhead shrapnel and the rocket propulsion engine itself is no more than 400 meters from the active reactor," the authorities noted.
The shelling is "extremely dangerous," according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who also said that they "expect" the nations that have "absolute influence" over the Ukrainian government to sway to stoppage of such bombardment.
Ukraine's Kotin highlighted the particularly grave risk of shelling and striking spent canisters of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, as per a Reuters report. "It is impossible to assess" the scope of the disaster "if two or more containers were broken."
Ukraine Resumes Grain Exports
In other updates, per CNBC, Ukraine is starting to restart grain shipments, all under the supervision of a Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul, which brings together representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, the minister of infrastructure for Ukraine, reported that a second caravan of four ships carrying agricultural products from the country left Black Sea ports. According to the agreement, the first four ships departed Ukraine last week.
Before the invasion, roughly a third of the world's wheat exports were made up of Russia and Ukraine.
Zelenskyy commended the resumption of exports but noted that concerns persisted.
The Ukrainian president said: "The threat of Russian provocations and terrorist acts remains. Everyone should be aware of this. But if our partners fulfill their part of the commitment and guarantee the security of supplies, this will really solve the global food crisis."
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