Disaster risk in Zaporizhzhia increases every day, mayor says

The risk of disaster at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian troops is "increasing every day", the mayor of the city where the facility is located said Sunday.

The Zaporizhzhia power plant -- Europe's largest -- was seized by Russian soldiers in the opening days of the invasion and has remained on the front line ever since.

This week the facility has come under fire repeatedly, with Kyiv and Moscow trading blame for the dangerous escalation.

The mayor of the southeastern city of Energodar, where the plant is located, told AFP "the risks are increasing every day".

"What is happening there is outright nuclear terrorism," Dmytro Orlov told AFP by telephone from the city of Zaporizhzhia, which remains under Ukrainian control.

"It can end unpredictably at any moment."

Kyiv has accused Moscow of basing troops and weapons in the station, launching attacks and using the atomic plant as a shield from returning fire.

In his televised address Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of nuclear "blackmail" and using the plant to "intimidate people in an extremely cynical way".

"The situation is hazardous, and what causes the most concern is that there is no de-escalation process," said Orlov.

Orlov also said that over the past 24 hours, Energodar -- which he left at the end of April -- had started to be shelled for the first time, with a dramatic increase in those hoping to evacuate.

He warned that in the "near future" there may not be enough personnel to man the station.

Ukraine was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded and spewed radiation into the atmosphere.