Kyiv/Vienna: Ukraine said on Monday it had discovered four Russian torture sites in its southern city of Kherson, which Moscow’s forces abandoned this month and left a trail of misery and destruction.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, vowed to track down and punish those it said were responsible for the “brutal” killings of nearly a dozen Russian soldiers who were reportedly surrendering in front of Kyiv.
Russian defense officials earlier this month made the “difficult” decision to withdraw from the city of Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow’s forces won after nearly nine months of fighting in Ukraine. Kyiv accused the evacuating forces of rendering vital infrastructure, including water and power stations in Kherson, useless, the loss of which is a strategic and symbolic blow to the Kremlin.
But on Monday, Kyiv also said Moscow operated a network of torture sites in the city, citing claims that Russian authorities had committed abuses there on a “horrifying” scale.
An accident is looming at the Russian-controlled
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“Together with police officers and experts, (prosecutors) inspected four premises where, during the occupation of the city, the occupiers illegally detained people,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement. And brutally tortured them.”
Prosecutors said in a statement that Russian forces had set up “pseudo law enforcement” in Kherson detention centers as well as a police station.
Risk of nuclear accident
Fresh explosions at Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant over the weekend have once again raised fears of an accident at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Here’s a look at the state of the plant in southern Ukraine and the risks associated with new shelling and the pressure on personnel.
Moscow took control of the site on March 4, shortly after launching its offensive. Since early August, the situation at the plant has deteriorated, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of shelling around the facility.
This weekend, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported about a dozen attacks. “Whoever, stop this madness!” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said.
Grossi, who has warned of the possibility of “nuclear catastrophe”, is negotiating with Moscow and Kyiv to establish a security zone around the plant. The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog has a number of experts on site.
Describing the attacks as “deliberately targeted”, he said the latest shelling “came dangerously close to … critical nuclear safety and security systems at the plant … we are talking about meters”. have been, not kilometers”. The IAEA said the damaged sites, including the radioactive waste and storage building, had normal radiation levels at the site.
Grossi warned in September that “a direct impact on the reactors, the associated facilities, particularly the spent fuel areas, where the spent fuel is located, could have very serious consequences.”
Tariq Rauf, a former IAEA official, said the deterrent for each of the six Russian-designed reactors was “quite strong”. He added that after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, “many remedial measures and back-up supplies” have been put in place.
