This strike at the Pivdennoukrainsk (southern Ukraine) nuclear power plant and new bombings near the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest such facility, have raised new fears of a wartime nuclear accident, Ukrainian officials said. In Crimea, Ukrainian territory seized and annexed by Russia during a 2014 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian-appointed governor who is not recognized by the West said a drone struck a building near the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Saturday morning. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “A drone flew on the roof. It was flying low,” said commander Mikhail Razvozhayev on Telegram. “Crashted right over Fleet HQ. Landed on roof and burned. Attack failed.” Razvozayev issued a new statement on Telegram in the evening, saying the area’s anti-aircraft system was back in operation and asking residents to stop filming and sharing photos of how it works. Ukrainian media reported explosions in nearby towns – including the resorts of Yevpatoriya, Olenivka and Zaozyornoye. Explosions and fires have rocked Crimea in the past week, including an explosion at a Russian air base that appeared to destroy a large number of aircraft, according to satellite images. Ukrainian officials have not commented. Analysts said the attacks were made possible by new equipment being used by the Ukrainian military and predicted more to come. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy alluded to the incidents in Crimea in his overnight video address, saying there was anticipation on the peninsula ahead of next week’s 31st anniversary of Ukrainian independence from Soviet rule. “You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back,” he said.
CHILDREN AMONG THE WOUNDED
After the strike near the Southern Ukraine power station, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, said on Telegram that four children were among the injured. Private homes and a five-story apartment building were damaged in Voznesensk, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the plant, Ukraine’s second largest. The general prosecutor’s office in the Mykolayiv region, updating an earlier tally, said 12 civilians were injured. State-owned Energoatom, which operates all four Ukrainian nuclear power producers, described the Voznesensk attack as “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism”. “It is possible that this missile was specifically aimed at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, which the Russian military tried to retake in early March,” Energoatom said in a statement. Russia did not immediately respond to the accusation. Reuters was unable to verify the situation in Voznesensk. There were no reports of damage at the southern Ukraine plant. Russia and Ukraine exchanged fresh accusations over shelling around the Zaporizhzhia station, which has been held by Russia since March. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in the nearby town of Enerhodar, said Ukrainian forces had launched at least four raids on the plant. Yevhen Yetushenko, mayor of Ukrainian-controlled Nikopoli across the Dnipro River, said Russian forces had repeatedly shelled the city. Talks have been going on for more than a week to arrange a visit to the plant by the UN’s nuclear energy agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Ukrainian authorities called on the United Nations and other international organizations to force Russian forces to leave the Zaporizhia plant. read more And in Mariupol, a city in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia after weeks of shelling, officials said the new Russian-appointed mayor, Konstantin Ivashchenko, survived an assassination attempt. “It didn’t work,” Petro Andryushenko, an official of the ousted city council, told Telegram. “But this is just the beginning.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Natalia Zinets Editing by Ron Popeski, Diane Craft and Chris Reese Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
