“The risk of nuclear conflict, absent for decades, is returning”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this after reports of continued shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, on Friday evening. Hours later, Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for a new incident.

Yesterday, the appointed pro-Russian administration of Energodar - the city near which the plant is located - announced that Ukraine had carried out another shelling on the territory of the plant. Fragments from rockets fired at the station are said to have landed within 400 meters of an operating power unit.

The strike was in the area of ​​a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, and the representative of the "military-civil administration" Vladimir Rogov claimed that the "Uragan" rocket salvo fire system was used.

The Ukrainian authorities responded that Russian forces were to blame for the shelling, and a worker was also injured. Russia subsequently accused the United States of a "disinformation" campaign in American media to attribute the escalation to the Russian military.

On Friday against Saturday, there was a new shelling in the area, for which Russia and Ukraine also blamed each other. It came days after the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, warned that the situation in the area of ​​the plant was "out of control" and called for experts to be allowed on the ground.

“I think if nuclear weapons are used, there won't be any UN to respond to it anymore”, said Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Twitter to sanction the Russian nuclear industry. Yesterday, Zelensky also spoke with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

According to the UN Secretary-General, it is necessary for the International Atomic Energy Agency to gain access to the plant, which, despite Russian control of the area, has been managed by its Ukrainian team for months.

Any attack on the nuclear power plant is "suicidal", Guterres warned at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. According to Guterres, the countries possessing nuclear weapons must make a commitment that they will not be the first to use them.

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