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KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Thursday that Russian forces were preparing a “terrorist attack” at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, officials in Moscow announced the head of the UN nuclear regulator, Rafael Grossi, was traveling on Friday to Russia to meet with the nuclear authorities.
Ukraine’s “Intelligence Service has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant – a terrorist attack with the release of radiation,” Zelenskyy said in a video address posted on social media Thursday morning. “They have prepared everything for it.”
Zelenskyy did not give any further details, but said Ukraine will share “all the evidence” with Kiev’s international partners – “everyone”. He also warned that “radiation knows no bounds” and “who it hits” depends on the “direction of the wind.”
Russia rejected Zelenskyy’s allegations. “Zelensky’s words that Russia is allegedly preparing a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant are another lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said shortly after the Ukrainian leader’s video was released.
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Zelenskyi’s warning was issued amid mounting concerns about the safety of the Zaporizhia plant.
Fighting in the region has intensified after Kiev launched a counter-offensive against invading Russian forces, while the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in southern Ukraine has raised concerns about water levels in the nuclear power plant’s cooling pool.
On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will meet with the head of Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Alexei Likhachev on Sept. 17 in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on Friday.
As fighting continued in eastern and southern Ukraine, Russian officials accused Kiev of carrying out a missile attack on a bridge linking southern Ukraine’s Kherson region with Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Russian news agencies reported no casualties.
Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed governor of the Russian-held part of the Kherson region, said on social media that Kiev’s forces hit the bridge near the settlement of Chongar with British-made storm shadow missiles. Ukrainian officials commented on the allegations.
“The missile damage to the bridges connecting Crimea and the Kherson region is another completely senseless action by the Kiev regime on orders from London,” Saldo said in a Telegram post, sharing pictures and a video of the damaged bridge.
“This will in no way affect the course of the special operation – there are other land routes to Crimea,” Saldo said, using the Russian euphemism for the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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