London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2026

‘Playing with fire’: UN warns as team to inspect damage at Ukraine nuclear plant

‘Playing with fire’: UN warns as team to inspect damage at Ukraine nuclear plant

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has warned that whoever fired artillery at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “playing with fire” as his team prepared to inspect it on Monday for damage from the weekend strikes.

The attacks on Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in the south of Ukraine came as battles raged in the east, where Russian forces pounded Ukrainian positions along the front line, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station follows setbacks for Russian forces in the Kherson region in the south and a Russian response that has included a barrage of missile strikes across the country, many on power facilities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said more than a dozen blasts shook the nuclear plant late on Saturday and on Sunday. IAEA head Rafael Grossi said the attacks were extremely disturbing and completely unacceptable.



“Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” Grossi said in a statement.

Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the shelling of the facility, as they have done repeatedly in recent months after attacks on it or near it.

Citing information provided by plant management, an IAEA team on the ground said there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment, but none of them critical for nuclear safety and security.

The team plans to conduct an assessment on Monday, Grossi said, but Russian nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom said there would be curbs on what the team could inspect.

“If they want to inspect a facility that has nothing to do with nuclear safety, access will be denied,” Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Rosenergoatom’s CEO, told the Tass news agency.

Repeated shelling of the plant has raised concern about a grave accident just 500 km (300 miles) from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The Zaporizhzhia plant provided about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s invasion, and has been forced to operate on back-up generators a number of times. It has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing Uranium 235.

The reactors are shut down but there is a risk that nuclear fuel could overheat if the power driving the cooling systems is cut. Shelling has repeatedly cut power lines.

Russia’s defense ministry said Ukraine fired shells at power lines supplying the plant but Ukraine’s nuclear energy firm Energoatom accused Russia’s military of shelling the site, saying the Russians had targeted infrastructure necessary to restart parts of the plant in an attempt to further limit Ukraine’s power supply.

In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces battered Ukrainian front-line positions with artillery fire, with the heaviest attacks in the Donetsk region, Zelensky said in a video address.

Russia withdrew its forces from the southern city of Kherson this month and moved some of them to reinforce positions in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, an industrial area known as the Donbas.

“The fiercest battles, as before, are in the Donetsk region. Although there were fewer attacks today due to worsening weather, the amount of Russian shelling unfortunately remains extremely high,” Zelensky said.

“In the Luhansk region, we are slowly moving forward while fighting. As of now, there have been almost 400 artillery attacks in the east since the start of the day,” he said.

Ukraine’s military in an early Monday update confirmed heavy fighting over the previous 24 hours, saying its forces had repelled Russian attacks in the Donetsk region while Russian forces were shelling in the Luhansk region in the east and Kharkiv in the northeast.

In the south, Zelensky said troops were “consistently and very calculatedly destroying the potential of the occupiers” but gave no details.

Kherson city remains without electricity, running water or heating.

Ukraine said on Saturday that about 60 Russian soldiers had been killed in a long-range artillery attack in the south, the second time in four days that Ukraine has claimed to have inflicted major casualties in a single incident.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that up to 50 Ukrainian servicemen were killed the previous day along the southern Donetsk front line and 50 elsewhere.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify any battlefield reports.

Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its neighbor, though Kyiv and its allies say the invasion is an unprovoked war of aggression.

Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst in Kyiv, said that according to his information, Russian offensives were taking place on the Bakhmut and Avdiivka front line in the Donetsk region, among others.

“The enemy is trying to break through our defenses, to no avail,” Zhdanov said in a social media video. “We fight back — they suffer huge losses.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Italian Police Arrest Man After Alleged Attempt to Abduct Toddler at Bergamo Supermarket, Child Hospitalised With Fractured Femur
Reform UK Appoints Former Conservative Minister Robert Jenrick as Finance Chief
UK Unemployment Rises to Highest in Nearly Five Years as Labour Market Weakens
Rupert Lowe Advocates for English-Only Use in the UK
US Successfully Transports Small Nuclear Reactor from California to Utah
South Korea's traditional sand wrestling sport ssireum faces declining interest at home
Japan outlawed Islam
Virginia Giuffre accuses Epstein of trafficking to powerful men for blackmail.
New Mexico lawmakers initiate investigation into Zorro Ranch linked to Jeffrey Epstein
British Tourist Arrested at Hong Kong Airport After Meltdown and Vandalism
The Spanish government has ordered prosecutors to investigate platforms X, Meta and TikTok for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material
European Commission Plans Purchase Incentives Limited to Vehicles Manufactured Largely in the EU
French District of Pas-de-Calais Introduces Immediate License Suspension for Drivers Using Mobile Phones
Volkswagen Targets €60 Billion in Cost Reductions as Sales Decline and Global Pressures Intensify
Nigel Farage Names Reform UK Frontbench Team and Signals Zero Tolerance for Internal Dissent
Qualcomm to Withdraw UK Lawsuit Over Smartphone Chip Royalty Dispute
Major UK Banks Explore Domestic Card Network to Rival Visa and Mastercard
Cold Health Alert Issued Across UK as Temperatures Drop Sharply
Nine-Year-Old Becomes First Child in UK to Undergo Groundbreaking Leg-Lengthening Surgery
UK Workers Face Stagnant Incomes and a Softening Labour Market as Unemployment Climbs
UK Passport Rules Tightened for British Dual Nationals Under New Travel Guidance
California Deepens Global Climate Alliance with New UK Pact and Major Clean-Tech Investment Drive
UK Supreme Court Tightens Rules on Use of ‘Milk’ and ‘Cheese’ Labels for Plant-Based Products
University of Kentucky Postpones Feb. 19 Law Enforcement Training Exercise in Lexington
‘The only thing illegal is Keir Starmer handing these islands to a country like Mauritius!’
JD Vance says Germany is “killing itself” by taking in millions of fake asylum seekers from culturally incompatible nations.
UK Markets Signal Opportunity as Starmer Confronts Intensifying Political Pressure
Trump Criticises Newsom’s UK Climate Pact, Defends Federal Authority Over Foreign Engagements
UK’s Top Prosecutor Says ‘No One Is Above the Law’ as Police Review Claims Against Ex-Prince Andrew
Businessman Adam Brooks weighs in on the reports that the US is set to help Hamit Coskun flee the UK, over free speech concerns
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi Releases 3.5 Million Pages of Jeffrey Epstein Case Files
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Comment on European allies report blaming Russia for killing late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny using toxin from poison dart frogs
Eighty-Year-Old Lottery Winner Sentenced to 16.5 Years for Drug Trafficking
UK Quran Burner May Receive Asylum in the US Amid Legal Challenges
Rubio Calls for Sweeping U.N. Reform, Saying It Has Failed to End Wars in Gaza and Ukraine
10,000 Condoms Distributed at Winter Olympics 2026 Athlete Village Depleted Within 72 Hours
Poland's President Advocates for Evaluating Independent Nuclear Weapons Development
Prince William Meets Saudi Crown Prince as Epstein-Andrew Fallout Casts Shadow
Starmer Calls for Renewed ‘Hard Power’ Investment at European Security Summit
UK Police Establish National Taskforce to Handle Domestic Epstein-Linked Allegations
UK Court Rules Ban on Palestine Action Unlawful in Major Free Speech Test
UK Faces Prospect of Net Migration Turning Negative as Economic Impact Looms
Mayor of Serdobsk in Russia’s Penza Region Resigns After Housing Certificates Granted to Migrant Family Trigger Public Outcry
Pentagon Reviews Anthropic Partnership After Claude AI Reportedly Used in Operation Targeting Nicolás Maduro
President Donald Trump and Hip-Hop’s Political Realignment: Pardons, Public Endorsements, and the Struggle Over Cultural Influence
China’s EV Makers Face Mandatory Return to Physical Buttons and Door Handles in Driver-Distraction Safety Overhaul
Goldman Sachs and DP World Executive Resignations: Elite-Reputation Risk and Corporate Governance Fallout From the Epstein Disclosures
‘Amelia’: The UK Government’s Anti-Extremism Game Villain Who Became a Protest Symbol
Peter Mandelson Asked to Testify Before US Congress Over Jeffrey Epstein Links
Walmart's Earnings and UK Economic Data Highlight Upcoming Financial Trends
×