Kyiv - Renewed Russian shelling on Saturday had damaged three radiation sensors and hurt a worker at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, the second hit in consecutive days on the site.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of waging "nuclear terror" that warranted more international sanctions, this time on Moscow's nuclear sector.
"There is no such nation in the world that could feel safe when a terrorist state fires at a nuclear plant," Zelenskiy said in a televised address on Sunday.
Ukraine's nuclear company, EnergoAtom, said the Russian rockets hit 174 storage facilities where nuclear fuel was stored. Zaporizhia was captured by Russian forces at the beginning of the war last March, but the plant is controlled by Ukrainian technicians. The International Atomic Energy Agency expressed concern over the attack.
Energoatom reports that the Ukrainian staff of the station continues to work even in these conditions and makes every effort to ensure nuclear and radiation safety.
Currently, the station staff is dealing with the aftermath of the damage caused by the Russian strikes on the plant on 5 August.
Andriy Yermak (Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine) emphasized that the events taking place at the Zaporizhzhia NPP is nuclear terrorism by Russia.
"The entire nuclear industry of the Russian Federation should be sanctioned, and Russia itself should be on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism," the head of the Presidential Office is convinced.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, said he was alarmed by the reports of damage and demanded that an IAEA team of experts urgently be allowed to visit the plant, to assess and safeguard the complex.
"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," Grossi said in a statement Saturday.
"Military action jeopardizing the safety and security of the Zaporizhzya nuclear power plant is completely unacceptable and must be avoided at all costs," he added.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe's largest atomic plant at the weekend.
"Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing," Guterres told a news conference in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.