Kiev 15 August : Artillery shells once again hit the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar close to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as hundreds of nations demanded the urgent evacuation of Russian forces from the region. “The presence of Russian soldiers and nuclear weapons in the facility is not acceptable,” a statement on behalf of 42 nations said.
“We demand the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its military forces as well as any other unauthorised personnel from the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, its immediate vicinity and from all of Ukraine to ensure that the operator as well as the Ukrainian authorities are able to resume their sovereign responsibilities within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.”
The demand was submitted in the name of the EU as well as the US, Britain, Norway, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and many other nations, the news agency dpa said.
“This will also allow the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to conduct its verification under Ukraine’s safeguards obligations in security and safety conditions, and in time,” the statement added.
The largest European nuclear power plant which has been under the control of Russian forces since March and has been under attack for a few weeks.
Each party blamed another for the shelling that occurred on Sunday and both sides claimed that one civilian was killed.
Russian authorities claimed “the Ukrainian nationalists of Ukraine” had engulfed the region, and the Ukrainian mayor of the city, Dmytro Orlov, spoke of an “murderous provocation” by the Russian side.
There is no official confirmation of the incident.
The experts from the IAEA are scheduled to inspect the site.However the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine are not able to reach an agreement on the schedule for the visit.
Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov has called on the UN to intervene to ensure the security of the facility.
It is the responsibility of the UN Secretariat to “give the green light to a visit to the nuclear power station by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Ulyanov told the Russian state-run news agency TASS in an interview that was published on Sunday.
According to reports according to reports, the UN has not yet permitted IAEA Director Rafael Grossi travel, not just for security reasons however, but also due to of disagreements about the itinerary.
Grossi may be able to be able to travel under Russian protection on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea that was annexed to Moscow in 2014, however this could be interpreted as a violation by Kiev.
Ukraine claims Russian soldiers of employing the nuclear power station as an armed fortress from which to shoot at the cities of Nikopol and Marhanez that are located on the other side of the Dnipro reservoir.
Russia however asserts that Ukraine is bombarding the facility with drones, heavy artillery , and rocket launchers.
The Kremlin announced that it has targeted targets in hundreds of locations in the eastern part of Ukraine with artillery and missiles.
The attacks were focused in the Donetsk region The attacks were concentrated in the Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said.In the neighboring Kharkiv region, the Udy village of Udy was taken prisoner, Moscow said, and an fuel depot close to Sloviansk was destroyed.
The Ukrainian general staff in Kiev has reported intense attacks in the south and east of the country.Within the Donetsk region, a plan made by Russian forces to penetrate into Sloviansk was repelled by Ukrainian forces, the report said.
All in all, Kiev said the situation was mostly the same.
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