Russians kept up pressure on eastern Ukraine on May 7 with claims of more ammunition for mercenaries in Bakhmut and Ukrainians sought shelter from possible air attacks, as UN nuclear officials expressed intense concern over risks to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, at Zaporizhzhya in southern Ukraine.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said he was "extremely concerned" as Ukrainian forces stepped up shelling to dislodge Russian forces near the Zaporizhzhya plant, which was captured early in the 14-month-old invasion.
"The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," Grossi said in a statement. "I'm extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant."
Air-raid alerts sounded overnight on May 6-7 in many regions of Ukraine amid unpredictable Russian bombardments and ongoing fighting for Bakhmut ahead of a patriotic anniversary in Russia.
Late on May 7 and early May 8, Ukrainian media reported explosions in the southern port city of Odesa and that air-raid sirens were again blaring in Kyiv and other cities.
Earlier, in its morning update on May 7, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces cautioned that "the likelihood of missile and air strikes across Ukraine remains quite high."
It said Russian troops were focusing their "main efforts" in the districts of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka, in the eastern Donetsk region, with "heavy fighting for the cities of Bakhmut and Maryinka."
Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said the situation in the east was "tense but under control."
Syrskiy said Russian forces have intensified their shelling and have attempted to reorganize troops in the region in recent days.
"This indicates that the enemy will not change its plans and is doing everything to gain control of Bakhmut and continue its offensive," he said.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar has said that Russian troops and Wagner mercenaries look to be doing their utmost to capture Bakhmut in a "symbolic" push by May 9, when Moscow celebrates World War II Victory Day.
On May 7, the head of the Wagner group supplying mercenaries to fight alongside regular Russian forces in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, also claimed that he had been promised adequate supplies of weapons and ammunition for the ongoing Bakhmut offensive.
Months into Russian forces' furious offensive to capture Bakhmut with an apparently heavy toll in casualties, Prigozhin this week issued graphic, expletive-filled video appeals threatening to pull his fighters out of the area. He blamed failures on the military leadership and its perceived unwillingness to provide sufficient ammunition.
Prigozhin also suggested he would pass control of the occupied areas to troops under pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov immediately after the May 9 anniversary.
In his latest comments on May 7, Prigozhin did not specifically say he was reversing his plans to pull his forces from the city but said he had been given permission to “act in Bakhmut as we see fit.”
Ukrainian authorities announced air alerts after 10 p.m. local time on May 6 for most regions of eastern, southern, and central Ukraine and urged citizens to hide in shelters.
The Moscow-installed leader of Russian-annexed Crimea's biggest city, Sevastopol, claimed at least 10 drone attacks had targeted the peninsula overnight in the latest accusation by Russians of a rash of airborne attacks, including on Russian territory that included the Kremlin in Moscow.
Concerns meanwhile mounted around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as Russian and international officials cite a Ukrainian push to recapture territory.
Moscow has already ordered families with children and elderly members to evacuate Russian-occupied areas near Zaporizhzhya.
SEE ALSO: 'The Whole Army Must Move Forward': Fighting Rages In Bakhmut As Momentum Builds For Ukraine's CounteroffensiveIvan Fedorov, the mayor of the town of Melitopol, in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, said he was not sure "how voluntary this relocation is."
Fedorov also said it sparked "a mad panic and no less mad queues" at a checkpoint into Russian-annexed Crimea, with buses leaving every half-hour or so and gasoline in short supply, according to AFP. He said he feared Russia might be "preparing for provocations" in the area.
The Ukrainian General Staff said of the Zaporizhzhya events and the Russian-ordered evacuation that "the first to be evacuated are those who accepted [R]ussian citizenship in the first months of the occupation."