Ukrainian authorities have begun distributing iodine tablets to residents near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant to provide protection against potential radiation poisoning in the event of a disaster at the facility.
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The move on August 27 comes as Ukraine and Russia traded accusations of shelling around the site and one day after Russia blocked the adoption of a key UN statement over its language about the plant.
Experts expressed concerns about the cooling systems for the plant's nuclear reactors after the facility was temporarily knocked offline on August 25, endangering the power needed to run the systems.
A failure of the cooling system could cause a meltdown at Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
On August 27, Ukraine said Russian forces fired on towns across the river from the facility, while Russia claimed Ukrainian troops shelled a building where nuclear fuel is being stored.
The claims could not independently be verified.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it has assembled a team of inspectors and is prepared to visit the site but that it remains unclear when they will be granted permission by the Russian side.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed that it was crucial for the IAEA to inspect the plant as soon as possible and to allow it to return it to "Ukrainian control.”
Ukraine’s state Enerhoatom nuclear power company wrote on Telegram that “the infrastructure of the station has been damaged” by Russian shelling, adding that there was a risk of “sputtering of radioactive substances” and fires.
Late on August 26, Russia blocked the adoption of the final document of a monthlong review of the UN’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, complaining that parts of the draft were “blatantly political in nature."
The conference’s president, Gustavo Zlauvinen of Argentina, said the conference was “not in a position to achieve agreement after Russia took issue with the text.”
The draft criticized Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhya plant early after Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February. The move has raised global concerns of a possible nuclear disaster.
While Russian forces have occupied the plant, Ukrainian workers have maintained its operation.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, fighting and killing continued in disparate areas of the country, including near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Sinegubov said Russian forces fired on two towns in the Kharkiv region, with at least one person, a 52-year-old woman, being killed in Zolochiv.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Russian troops shelled the Shevchenkivskyi district of the city, although no injuries were immediately reported.
Authorities in the southern city of Mykolayiv said one person was killed and another injured in Russian firing in the region.