Watchdog growingly worried over Ukrainian nuclear plant security

Civilians from 18 settlements in the area were asked to evacuate on Sunday

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog expressed growing anxiety about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, after the governor of the Russia-occupied area ordered the evacuation of a town where most plant staff live amid ongoing attacks in the area.

The plant is near the front lines of fighting, and Ukrainian authorities on Sunday said that a 72-year-old woman was killed and three others were wounded when Russian forces fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town neighboring the plant.

“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said in a warning that came on Saturday before the latest. 

Grossi’s comments were prompted by an announcement by Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed governor of the partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia province, that he had ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements in the area.

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Ukraine farmers risk losing their lives or livelihoods

Farmers in areas now free from Russian occupation are risking their lives to strip their land of explosives before the critical spring planting season. They must also cope with soaring production and transportation costs caused by Russia’s blockade of many Black Sea ports and recent restrictions that neighboring countries imposed on Ukrainian grain.

‘Bomber who injured novelist acted for Ukraine’

Russia’s top investigative agency on Saturday said the suspect in a car bombing that injured a prominent pro-Kremlin novelist and killed his driver has admitted to acting at the behest of Ukraine’s special services. The blast that hit the car of Zakhar Prilepin, a well-known nationalist writer and an ardent supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, was the third explosion involving prominent pro-Kremlin figures since the start of the conflict. The blast took place in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, located about 400 km east of Moscow.

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