In the latest incident spurring fears of an atomic emergency, Ukraine said that Russian rockets landed precariously close to a nuclear power station in southern Ukraine. Ukraine recaptured yum and other towns in the east this month, crippling Kremlin supply routes and bringing fresh claims of Russian atrocities with the discovery of hundreds of graves -- some containing multiple bodies.
"These are lies," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peso told reporters on Monday. Moscow, he said, "will stand up for the truth in this story." Fighting in the northeast has raged, and AFP journalists heard artillery exchanges in frontline Murmansk on Monday, as traumatized civilians headed out of the town now mainly in Ukrainian hands. The streets were strewn with broken glass, spent cartridge casings and the discarded remains of ration packs issued by both forces. Most of the fire is outgoing, with Ukrainian tanks and artillery targeting Russian positions on the west side of the town, over a mess of broken bridges. A column of smoke rose in the distance. At the entrance to the town, cowering from the sounds of Ukrainian tank shells passing overhead towards Russian lines, civilians gathered to hitch rides or join buses to head out into safer Ukrainian territory. Russian-backed authorities in east Ukraine said a "punitive" strike by Kyiv's forces had killed more than a dozen people and wounded more in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk. The rebel head of the region claimed the strike was "deliberate" and said it would "not go unpunished." A court in the neighboring rebel-held region of Lugansk meanwhile sentenced two employees of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to 13 years on treason charges. OSCE chairman Biggie Ran condemned the "unjustifiable" detention of the mission's members since the outbreak of the war, calling it "nothing but pure political theater... inhumane and repugnant". Ukrainian civilians in the Kharkiv region have recounted months of brutality under Russian occupation. In Murmansk, Mikhail Hinder told AFP he had been tortured on suspicion of supplying targeting coordinates to Ukrainian forces. Attacks around Ukrainian nuclear facilities have spurred calls from Ukraine and its Western allies to demilitarize surrounding areas. Europe's largest atomic facility -- the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-held territory in Ukraine -- has become a hot spot for concerns after tit-for-tat claims of attacks. The UN's atomic agency deployed a monitoring team to the site in early September after new fighting. Early in the February invasion, fighting erupted around Chernobyl in the north, where an explosion in 1986 contaminated swathes of the surrounding territory. "Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it's too late," Zelensky said early Monday. The Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, where the plant is located, is close to the front line of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. Kyiv's forces have clawed back territory near Mykolaiv, nearing the strategically important hub of Kherson. Russian forces have continued to shell Ukrainian-held towns near the frontliner. Ukraine's nuclear energy agency, Mikail, said Russia struck the nuclear power plant overnight, with a "powerful explosion" just 300 meters (985 feet) from its reactors.
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