KYIV: Ukrainian and Russian-installed officials reported shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on Monday , with both sides blaming each other after the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of disaster if the fighting does not stop.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in the city, said that over the past two hours about 25 heavy artillery strikes from US-made M777 howitzers had hit near the nuclear plant and residential areas. "The Russians think they can force the world to comply with their conditions by shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP ," Andriy Yermak, chief of the Ukrainian presidential staff, wrote on Twitter."This will not happen. Instead, our military will punish them by hard hitting with precision on pain points."UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the establishment of a demilitarised zone around Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian forces earlier reported heavy Russian shelling and attempts to advance on several towns in the eastern region of Donetsk that has become a key focus of the near six-month-old war, but said they had repelled many of the attacks. Asked about Ukraine's shelling on Sunday of the Antonivskyi Bridge in the Kherson region, she said Ukrainian forces were continuing to fire on routes used by the Russians for supplies.
A soldier, who assists at the emergency ward, pushes a stretcher with a wounded Ukrainian soldier in an emergency room in a military hospital, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Aug 9, 2022.