KYIV —
Ukraine on Wednesday accused
Russia of carrying out rocket strikes that killed
13 civilians in areas near a nuclear power plant, as the G7 warned that Russian
control of the facility “endangers the region”.
اضافة اعلان
The overnight
strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine also injured 11 people,
with five reported to be in a serious condition.
Most of the
casualties were in the town of Marganets, just across the Dnieper River from
the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest.
Regional council
head Mykola Lukashuk said the strikes had hit a local power line, leaving
thousands of people without electricity.
G7 call over nuclear plant
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of recent shelling around the
plant, which has six reactors.
Ukraine says Russia
has stationed hundreds of troops and stored ammunition at the facility since
taking it over on March 4, shortly after starting its invasion.
The tensions have
brought back memories of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in then
Soviet Ukraine, which killed hundreds of people and spread radioactive contamination
over much of Europe.
The Group of Seven
industrialized nations condemned Russia’s occupation and called on Moscow to
immediately hand back full control of the plant.
Ukrainian staff
operating the plant “must be able to carry out their duties without threats or
pressure. It is Russia’s continued control of the plant that endangers the
region,” the
G7 foreign ministers said in a statement.
The strikes came a
day after major blasts at the Saki airfield, a key military base on the
Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.
Moscow insisted
that the explosions were caused by detonating ammunition rather than Ukrainian
fire and Ukraine has not claimed responsibility.
Fighting also
ground on in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are gradually advancing.
The city of Soledar
was under constant shelling, AFP reporters saw, as Russian troops attempted to
drive out Ukrainian forces and seize a foothold towards the larger city of
Bakhmut.
The echoes of
cluster bombs and artillery bounced off apartment buildings with their windows
shattered, while roads were cratered and shops boarded up or destroyed.
The city was
shrouded with black and white smoke arising from artillery and air strikes.
Some of those who
remain now live their lives underground in cellars ill-suited as bomb shelters.
Vienna dims street lights
The war has severely hampered grain supply from Ukraine, leading to an
international food crisis as it is one of the world’s biggest producers.
Some ships have
been able to leave Ukrainian ports in recent days after a deal with Russia
brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
The first grain
shipment to leave on the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel Razoni departed the
Ukrainian port of Odessa on August 1 and had been expected to dock in the
Lebanese port of Tripoli at the weekend.
But the Ukrainian
embassy said a new buyer for the shipment was being sought after the original
Lebanese buyer cancelled the order.
A five-month delay
after
Russia’s invasion “prompted the buyer and the shipping agent to reach
agreement on the cancellation of the order,” the Ukraine embassy said in a
statement late Tuesday.
It is currently
anchored off the Turkish port of Mersin.
Western countries
have meanwhile imposed increasingly stringent sanctions on Russia, raising
fears that Russia may cut off gas supplies.
EU countries have started putting into place different
measures to save energy, with air conditioning curbs coming into force in Spain
on Wednesday and Vienna dimming street lighting.
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