Ukraine blasts Putin’s ‘nuclear blackmail’

UKRAINIAN president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of using ‘nuclear blackmail’ by stationing troops at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in March in the early days of its invasion and has turned it into a base from where it hits nearby towns.

This means Ukrainian forces cannot fight back without the risk of unleashing a catastrophic radiation fallout from a stray missile. But the plant has been shelled in recent days, with both sides blaming each other.

Ukraine says Russia has fired its own weaponry at the plant, claiming they were Ukrainian attacks. The UN, meanwhile, has warned of a nuclear disaster as the situation escalates.

Mr Zelensky says any Russian soldier who shoots at or under the cover of the plant will be a ‘special target’ for his forces. The plant is located in the city of Enerhodar, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 2 , seizing the plant within days. Russia has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says it seized control of the plant to prevent leaks of radioactive materials during fighting in the region.

Mr Zelensky said Russia had engaged in ‘constant provocations’ by firing on the plant. This was being done, he said in his TV address, to ‘blackmail our state and the entire free world’. But he stressed that ‘Russian blackmail only mobilises even more global efforts to confront terror’.