According to Ukrainian troops, “the first to be evicted are those who accepted Russian citizenship in the first months of the occupation”.
According to the BBC, the town of Enerhodar was also evacuated. Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, said there were five-hour queues as thousands of people left the city.
On British television, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Croci agreed. Evacuating people living near the nuclear power plant could mean heavy fighting between nearby Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Already on Friday, in a sign of intensifying fighting, Yevgeny Politsky, the governor of the Russian-occupied region, ordered the evacuation of civilians from the area.
On Saturday, Rafael Grossi already raised concerns about the safety of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and considered that the situation was becoming more dangerous.
“The situation in the vicinity of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is becoming unpredictable and dangerous,” the IAEA Director General said.He also added concerns about “nuclear safety” and “security risks” at the plant.
The IAEA director-general added that UN experts in Zaporizhzhya “continue to hear of continued bombings”.
“We must act now to prevent the threat of a serious nuclear accident and its consequences for the population and the environment”, Grassi added.
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is close to the front lines of the fighting. In recent months, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged accusations of attacks near a nuclear power plant.
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