AGENCIES

Ukraine yesterday accused Russia of again shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia, and called for new international sanctions on Moscow for “nuclear terror”.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency raised grave concern about the shelling at the nuclear power plant, as its military said Russian forces had attacked dozens of front-line towns.

The developments came as four ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports yesterday as part of a deal to unblock the country’s sea exports, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said.

The four bulk carriers were loaded with almost 170,000 tonnes of corn and other foodstuffs, Ukraine’s sea ports authority said on Facebook.

Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm said Russian forces damaged three radiation sensors at the facility in renewed shelling on Saturday night, wounding a worker with shrapnel.

The plant, in Russian-controlled territory, was also shelled on Friday. Moscow blames Ukrainian forces for the strikes.

Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said the latest Russian rocket attacks hit the plant’s dry storage facility, where 174 containers with spent nuclear fuel were stored in the open air.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had said Friday’s shelling showed the risk of a nuclear disaster. Those shells hit a high-voltage power line, prompting the plant’s operators to disconnect a reactor despite no radioactive leak being detected.

On the ground, Russia is trying to gain control of the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region in the east, comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, where pro-Moscow separatists seized territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014.

Ukraine’s military said late on Saturday that Russian forces had shelled dozens of front-line towns and were trying to attack in six different areas in the Donetsk region, all of which failed to gain any territory and were held back by Ukrainian forces.