FILE PHOTO: Overview of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and fires, in Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, August 24, 2022. European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery/Handout via REUTERS
LONDON — A senior Russian official said Thursday that Russia had prevented a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Repeated shelling of the plant has raised the possibility of a grave accident just 500 km (300 miles) from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has repeatedly expressed concerns over the shelling of the plant, has proposed the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant.
Ukraine says Russia has repeatedly shelled the plant while Russia says Ukraine has shelled the plant. Both sides deny the other’s claims.
READ: Zaporizhzhia: the nuclear power plant caught in the war in Ukraine
Ukrainian forces “continue to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with Western weapons which could lead to a global catastrophe,” Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said.
Patrushev said that Russian special services had prevented what he said was a “terrorist attack” on the plant.
Ukraine’s state nuclear company said on Thursday that Russian shelling had damaged high voltage lines at the plant.
After invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian forces took control of the plant in early March. Special Russian military units guard the facility and Russian nuclear specialists are on site. Ukrainian staff continue to help operate the plant.