Risks 'Increasing Every Day' Amid Nuclear Plant Shelling: Ukrainian Mayor

A Ukrainian mayor says that risks are "increasing every day" at the nuclear power plant in his Russian-occupied city that has seen nearby shelling in recent days.

The shelling at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (NPP) in Enerhodar, Ukraine, has raised concerns about the possibility of a nuclear accident. On Saturday, Ukrainians once again said Russians had been shelling near the plant, while Russian officials denied the allegations, Reuters reported. While the plant is located in territory that has been occupied since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is still operated by the Ukrainians.

"What is happening there is outright nuclear terrorism," Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Energodar, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) that was published on Sunday. "It can end unpredictably at any moment."

"The invaders continue to terrorise the civilian population and the nuclear power plant," Orlov added. "Fire safety rules are repeatedly violated. The situation is heating up, and the escalation continues."

Footage reportedly showing people fleeing the area of the power plant en masse began circulating on social media on Saturday.

"A huge convoy of cars is trying to leave occupied Enerhodar. People are leaving their homes next to Zaporizhzhya NPP, controlled by Russian terrorists, blackmailing the world with a nuclear catastrophe. Today Russians again shelled nuclear station," Maria Avdeeva, the research director at the European Expert Association in Ukraine, tweeted, sharing a video of people standing next to cars along a rural road.

Russian officials have denied that they're behind the shelling. In a post on Telegram last week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, said the idea that the Russians were behind the shelling was "nonsense." However, he also issued a warning about possible accidents at European power plants.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministries for comment.

In an address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian "occupiers" of "trying to intimidate people in an extremely cynical way" by using the
"nuclear power plant."

"They actually hide behind the plant to fire at Nikopol and Marhanets," he said, referring to Ukrainian cities. "They arrange constant provocations with shelling of the territory of the nuclear power plant and try to bring their additional forces in this direction to blackmail our state and the entire free world even more."

Zelensky added that each day the Russians occupy the territory of the NPP, it "increases the radiation threat to Europe so much that even at the peak moments of the confrontation during the Cold War, this did not happen."