IAEA head says attacks near Zaporizhzhia nuclear site amount to ‘playing with fire’

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sounded an alarm about the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after shelling damaged parts of the compound on Friday.

“I’m extremely concerned by the shelling yesterday at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond,” Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.

Grossi said Ukraine had reported no damage to the reactors and no radiological release, but that military action was “unacceptable” and had to be “avoided at all costs.”