Amid global fury over the attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – said to be the largest of its kind in Europe – Russia is reported to have been advancing towards Ukraine’s second largest nuclear power plant in Yuzhnoukrainsk. The Kremlin “must halt any use of force that may risk 15 reactors” in the war-hit country, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council, underlining that the troops were advacing towards a second nuclear plant. “Russian forces are now 20 miles, and closing, from Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear facility,” she said late on Friday night.
The South Ukraine facility near Yuzhnoukrainsk is the country’s second-largest plant. The development comes after the Russian forces attacked the Zaporizhzhia in the southeast of Ukraine on Friday. In a statement released later by the Russian defence ministry, it said that its forces have held the nuclear plant since February 28, while accusing Ukraine of a “provocation.” The attack led to global condemnation with the Kremlin being accused of resorting to “nuclear terror”.
