Ukraine called for new sanctions on Russia, highlighting the risks and consequences of a catastrophe at Europe's biggest nuclear plant, where fresh shelling incident happened, reports Reuters.
Ukrainian and Russian-installed officials have initiated blame games over who is responsible for attacks close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
Warning Russian soldiers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that they will become a special target, if they attack the site in the now Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, or use it as a base to shoot from.
"If through Russia's actions a catastrophe occurs, the consequences could hit those who for the moment are silent," he said in a late Monday-night address, calling for new sanctions on Russia's nuclear sector.
"If now the world does not show strength and decisiveness to defend one nuclear power station, it will mean that the world has lost," he added.
The world nuclear watchdog has warned of a disaster if the fighting does not stop.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in Enerhodar, said on Monday about 25 heavy artillery strikes from U.S.-made M777 howitzers had hit near the nuclear plant and residential areas during a two-hour period.
Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting the press service of Enerhodar's Russian-appointed administration, said Ukrainian forces had opened fire, with blasts near the power plant.
But according to the head of the administration of the Nikopol district, lying across the river from Enerhodar and remains under Ukrainian control, it was Russian forces that had shelled the city to try to make it appear that Ukraine was attacking it.
"The Russians think they can force the world to comply with their conditions by shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP (nuclear power plant)," Andriy Yermak, chief of the Ukrainian presidential staff, wrote on Twitter.
Russian forces continued to shell towns and cities - Velika Kostryumka in the south and Marhanets - opposite the Zaporizhhia nuclear power plant, according to a report from the south district of the Ukrainian armed forces on Facebook.
Ukrainian forces killed 23 Russian soldiers and destroyed two reinforced positions, it added.
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
The United Nations says it has the logistics and security capacity to support a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if both Russia and Ukraine agree.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held a phone call with Guterres to discuss conditions for the safe functioning of the plant, the ministry said on Monday.
"In close cooperation with the agency and its leadership, we will do everything necessary for the IAEA specialists to be at the station and give a truthful assessment of the destructive actions of the Ukrainian side," Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
But Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy head of the foreign ministry's nuclear proliferation and arms control department, was later quoted as saying it would be too dangerous for any IAEA mission to travel through the capital Kyiv to inspect the plant.
"Imagine what it means to pass through Kyiv - it means they get to the nuclear plant through the front line," RIA news agency quoted Vishnevetsky.
Ukraine, where parliament on Monday extended martial law for a further three months, has said for weeks it is planning a counteroffensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson province, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its Feb. 24 invasion and still holds.
Bdpratidin English/Lutful Hoque
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