Ukraine has demanded that Russia be punished for such dangerous moves. The Zaporizhzhya nuclear site was hit by Russian missiles on Friday, triggering many warnings of a “real risk of nuclear disaster”.
The power plant in southern Ukraine has reportedly been hit again as Ukraine and the Kremlin blame each other for the attacks.
The site was under Russian control for most of the conflict that began on February 24, but Ukrainian engineers still operate the plant.
While reports of a follow-up attack after Friday’s bombing have not been independently verified, Ukraine has criticized Russia for posing a “very real risk of nuclear disaster” and has demanded further international sanctions against the country.
Enerhoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear power company responsible for the plant, said the “Russian occupiers fired rockets again at the site of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and the city of Enerhodar”.
They continued: “A worker was hospitalized with shrapnel caused by the explosion.”
The attack on the plant not only damaged some of the administration buildings on the site, but some of the missiles also fell in a “zone where spent nuclear fuel was stored”.
The company noted that Friday’s attack damaged three radiation sensors at the site, along with 174 containers of spent nuclear fuel stored in the open air in the dry storage area that was attacked.
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On Saturday, a watchdog spokesperson added: “Any military firepower directed at or from the facility would be tantamount to playing with fire, with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
However, on August 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a letter to those attending a conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty that he has no intention of sparking a nuclear war.
The president said: “We assume that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it must never be unleashed, and we stand for equal and indivisible security for all members of the global community.”