Shelling at nuclear plant as Russia, Ukraine trade blame

West urges Moscow to withdraw troops; UN calls for facility to become demilitarised zone

Ukraine and Russia accused each other yesterday of risking nuclear disaster by shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in a region expected to become one of the next big front lines of the war.

Western countries have called for Moscow to withdraw its troops from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and the United Nations called on Thursday for it to be declared a demilitarised zone.

But there has been no sign so far of Russia agreeing to move its troops out of the facility they seized in March. The plant dominates the south bank of a vast reservoir on the Dnipro river that cuts across southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces controlling the towns and cities on the opposite bank have come under intense bombardment from the Russian-held side.

Three civilians, including a boy, were wounded in the overnight shelling of one of those towns, Marhanets, said Mr Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, in the latest in a string of similar reports.

Kyiv has said for weeks it is planning a counter-offensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson provinces, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its Feb 24 invasion still in Russian hands.

Moscow has installed regional officials who say they intend to stage votes to join Russia.