Russian seizure of nuclear plant sparks outrage

Sat, Mar 05, 2022 page1

‘RECKLESS ACTIONS’: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded a meeting of the
UN Security Council after attacks that ‘directly threaten the safety of all of Europe’

Ukraine yesterday accused the Kremlin of “nuclear terror” and the West expressed
horror, after Europe’s largest atomic power plant was attacked and taken over by
invading Russian forces.

Blasts lit up the night sky as the plant at Zaporizhzhia came under （遭受） shell fire
（炮火）, while Russian troops advanced in southern Ukraine and bombarded several cities
elsewhere.

Ukrainian firefighters said they were prevented from accessing the site initially, before
they were able to douse （澆熄） a blaze （烈火） at a training facility on the site.

The six reactors, which can power enough energy for 4 million homes, were apparently
undamaged and international monitors reported no spike （急升） in radiation.

The attack, which Kyiv’s nuclear operator Energoatom said killed three Ukrainian
soldiers, was slammed （猛烈抨擊） in Washington, London and other Western capitals as
utterly irresponsible.

“We survived a night that could have stopped the story, the history of Ukraine, the
history of Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

An explosion at Zaporizhzhia would have equaled “six Chernobyls,” he said, referring to

the plant in Ukraine that was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

“Russian tank commanders knew what they were firing at,” Zelenskiy said, adding that
“the terrorist state now resorted to （依靠 / 訴諸） nuclear terror.”
For its part, Moscow said the attack on Zaporizhzhia was staged by “Ukrainian
sabotage （蓄意破壞 / 搗亂） groups with the participation of foreign mercenaries （僱
佣兵）.”

“The goal of the provocation （挑衅） at the nuclear station was to try to accuse Russia of
creating a radioactive flash point,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov
said.

“This shows the Kyiv regime‘s （政府） criminal plan,” he said, adding that the plant had
been secured by Russian troops and was functioning normally.

After telephoning Zelenskiy during the night, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
demanded an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “reckless actions” that “could now
directly threaten the safety of all of Europe,” and pressed anew （重新） for （迫切要
求） a ceasefire.

Putin has been unrepentant （不後悔的）about an offensive that has cast Russia into the
economic, sporting and cultural equivalent of exile （流放） to Siberia 西伯利亞.

He on Thursday said that the invasion was going “strictly according to schedule,
according to plan” in its aim of driving out（ 驅逐） the “neo-Nazis” in Kyiv led by
Zelenskiy — who is Jewish.

Addressing security chiefs in televised comments, Putin added that he would never
abandon his conviction “that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking to Putin on Thursday, said that “the
worst is to come,” an aide （助理） quoted him as saying.

Ukrainian leaders warn that Russia, with its invasion bogged down （陷入困境/ 停頓）
north of Kyiv, is bent on （致力） reprising （重演） the horrific tactics that it used to
level （推倒 / 夷平） the Syrian （敘利亞） city of Aleppo （阿勒波） in 2016. The port
city of Mariupol（馬里烏波爾，烏克蘭第二大港口）, east of Kherson （赫爾松，南部城
市）, is cut off without water or electricity in the depths of winter.

Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told BBC radio that its humanitarian situation was
“terrible,” after 40 hours of continuous shelling, including on schools and hospitals.

“Today, Putin style of war is like Aleppo. So Mariupol goes to Aleppo,” Orlov said in
English. “I believe that he wants to destroy Ukraine as a nation, and Mariupol is on this
way.”

In the northern city of Chernihiv（切爾尼戈夫）, 33 people died on Thursday when Russian

forces hit residential areas, including schools and a high-rise apartment block, local officials said.