Nuclear plant worries increase amid evacuations

MOSCOW/KYIV — Anxiety about the safety of Europe's largest nuclear power plant grew on Sunday after the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations, including from the city where most plant workers live.

Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear power watchdog, has spent months trying to persuade Russian and Ukrainian officials to establish a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to prevent the conflict from causing a radiation leak.

The evacuations ordered by the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, raised fears that fighting in the area would intensify. Balitsky on Friday ordered civilians to leave 18 communities, including Enerhodar, which is home to most of the plant staff.

Grossi has warned that the situation around the plant has become "potentially dangerous".

Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from areas near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Balitsky said late on Sunday.

" (The evacuees) have already been placed in the temporary accommodation center for residents of the front-line territories of the Zaporizhzhia region in Berdiansk," Balitsky said on his Telegram messaging channel.

None of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant's six reactors are operating because of the conflict but the station needs a reliable power supply for cooling systems essential for preventing a potentially catastrophic radiation disaster.

It came as some of the fiercest ongoing fighting is in the city of Bakhmut.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that Moscow's forces had captured two more districts in the city's west and northwest, but provided no further details.

The head of the paramilitary Wagner group said on Sunday that Russia had promised his fighters enough ammunition to stay in Bakhmut.

"Overnight we received a combat order … they promised to give us all the ammunition and armaments we need" to continue the operations in Bakhmut, Wagner's boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was expected to travel to Kyiv on Tuesday to mark Europe Day with Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc traditionally marks its "peace and unity" on May 9, a date that coincides with Russia celebrating Victory Day in memory of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Agencies Via Xinhua