Some of the Russian troops struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, early on Monday. The power station’s three reactors have not been damaged as well as are still working normally, as per the reports.
According to Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom, shells are recorded to have landed about 300 metres away from the reactor buildings within the plant shortly after midnight. The attack also damaged a nearby hydroelectric power plant as well as power cables.
Energoatom mentioned in the statement, “Currently, all three power units of the PNPP (Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plants) are operating normally. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the station staff.”
Moreover, the nuclear operator published about two photographs appearing to show damage caused by shelling, with one picture featuring an extremely large crater reported to have been caused by the Russian shelling.
Commenting on the strike on Telegram, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asserted Russia “endangers the whole world” with its shelling of nuclear facilities. The western authorities have repeatedly called on Russia to stop strikes against nuclear facilities.
In September, the international observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency-IAEA evaluated the damage done to the Zaporizhzhia power plant, highlighting that the physical integrity of the plant had been “violated”, which risked the security of the plant.