The town of
Energodar
that hosts the
Zaporizhzhia
nuclear
power plant
has been under Russian artillery fire since this morning at 5:00 local time (4:00 in Italy): the mayor, Dmytro Orlov, reports Ukrinform on Telegram.
"Energodar. From five in the morning the mortar shelling on the city does not stop. Machine gun shots are heard.
Several civilians have been hit
. There are casualties! We are determining the number of victims," Orlov writes.
The Russian army reports that a team of Ukrainian "saboteurs" has arrived near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
From the early hours of this morning the Ukrainian army fires with artillery against the meeting point set with the IAEA mission near the town of Vasylivka: the Russian defense ministry says this, reports Interfax.
Vasylivka is located about 68 kilometers east of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where UN agency inspectors are headed for their mission.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms the visit to the nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia despite the hostilities: this was stated by the director general of the UN agency, Rafael Grossi.
The inspectors left the city of Zaporizhzhia to visit the Russian-occupied power plant of the same name, located in the nearby town of Energodar.
The protection system of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was triggered this morning following an artillery attack and deactivated the reactor number 5 of the plant: the announcement was made by the Ukrainian national company for the production of nuclear energy, Energoatom, cited UNIAN .
According to Energoatom the reactor was shut down automatically at 4:57 (3:57 in Italy) after another mortar attack by Russian forces.
The head of the administration appointed by Moscow in Zaporizhzhia, Volodymyr Rogov, said instead that the reactor was shut down following Ukrainian artillery shells, reports Tass.
