New bombings raise concern over radiation at Zaporizhia nuclear plant

First modification: 08/28/2022 – 18:05

Fears are growing over a possible radioactive disaster at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, in southern Ukraine and controlled by Russian troops.

kyiv accused Moscow this Sunday, August 27, of resuming bombardments from the nuclear power plant towards nearby towns and cities.

The region’s governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said the Russian actions hit residential buildings in the region’s main city, Zaporizhia, about a two-hour drive from the power plant, and in the city of Orikhiv, further east.

In its daily report, the Army of the country under attack reported assaults in nine other towns in the area surrounding the plant, located on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River.

For his part, the spokesman for the Kremlin Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, confirmed attacks by Ukrainian forces around the power installation in the last 24 hours. He claimed that nine shells fired by kyiv artillery in two separate attacks hit the nuclear power plant.

“Currently, technical staff are monitoring the technical status of the nuclear power plant and ensuring its operation. The radiation situation in the area of ​​the nuclear power plant remains normal,” the Russian ministry added in a statement.

These claims have not been independently verified. A delegation from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to visit the site until next week. The committee is awaiting permission to visit the site.

The two parties are accusing each other again, while the risk of a disaster at the nuclear power plant is increasingly worrying.

Under control of the foreign military since last March, but still run by Ukrainian personnel and experts, the complex on the southern front line of the war is one of the main flashpoints in the six-month conflict.

Both the United Nations and kyiv have called for the removal of military equipment and personnel from the plant to prevent it from becoming a target.

The EU would suspend tourist visas for citizens of Russia

The British newspaper ‘Financial Times’ reported that the European Union (EU) will suspend its visa agreement with Russia this week.

The plan is to freeze the 2007 agreement with Moscow, which will make it more difficult and costly for Russian citizens to obtain documents to transit through the Schengen area.

“As a first step, the ministers plan to give political support to the suspension of the EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement, in a two-day meeting in Prague starting on Tuesday (August 30),” the newspaper said, citing three officials involved in the talks.

The measure would come into force after some Eastern European states threatened to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists, and other countries called for collective action to prevent Russian citizens from traveling to the EU on tourist visas.

Earlier, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, called for a total ban on this matter.

“It is inappropriate for Russian tourists to walk through our cities, through our marinas. We have to send a signal to the Russian population that this war is not right, it is not acceptable,” said a senior official from the European bloc.

Since the end of last February, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the war against his neighboring country, parts of the 2007 agreement related to the free movement of government officials and businessmen have been suspended.

A broader cancellation would remove preferential treatment for Russians when applying for all EU visas, requiring more documents, making the process more expensive and significantly increasing wait times.

With Reuters, AP and local media