Ukraine accuses Russia of "nuclear terrorism"

A Russian missile landed close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Monday. The strike damaged nearby industrial equipment but did not hit the reactors.

Ukrainian authorities labelled the attack and act of "nuclear terrorism".

The missile landed 300 metres away from the reactors of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power plant, which is near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk in Mykolaiv province. It is the second largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

A video showing the attack was released by Ukraine's Defence Ministry.

Patricia Lewis, the international security research director at the Chatham House think-tank in London, called the attacks at the Zaporizhzhia plant - Europe's largest - and at South Ukraine plant very dangerous.

She told The Associated Press: “It’s a very, very dangerous and illegal act to be targeting a nuclear station."

“Only the generals will know the intent, but there’s clearly a pattern."

“What they seem to be doing each time is to try to cut off the power to the reactor. It’s a very clumsy way to do it, because how accurate are these missiles?”

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