Ukraine Says Russia Considering Nuclear Plant ‘Terror’ Attack, Moscow Denies It

A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, June 15, 2023. (Reuters)
A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, June 15, 2023. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Says Russia Considering Nuclear Plant ‘Terror’ Attack, Moscow Denies It

A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, June 15, 2023. (Reuters)
A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, June 15, 2023. (Reuters)

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukrainian spies had received information showing Russia was considering carrying out a "terrorist" attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant involving a release of radiation. 

The Kremlin dismissed the allegation as "another lie" and said a team of UN nuclear inspectors had visited the plant and rated everything highly. 

In a video statement on the Telegram messenger, Zelenskiy said Kyiv was sharing the information about the Russian-occupied facility in southern Ukraine with all its international partners from Europe and the United States to China and India. 

"Intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - a terrorist act with the release of radiation," he said. "They have prepared everything for this." 

Zelenskiy did not say what evidence the intelligence agencies based their assertion on. 

The six-reactor complex, Europe's biggest nuclear plant, has been under occupation since shortly after Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine in February last year. 

The two sides have accused each other of shelling the vast complex, and international efforts to establish a demilitarized zone around it have failed so far. 

"Unfortunately, I have had to remind (people) more than once that radiation knows no state borders. And who it will hit is determined only by the direction of the wind..." Zelenskiy said. 

Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, suffered the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, when clouds of radioactive material spread across much of Europe after an explosion and fire at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. 

Zelenskiy made his statement two days after Ukraine's military intelligence chief accused Russia of "mining" the cooling pond that is used to keep the reactors cool at the Zaporizhzhia plant. 

Russian forces have occupied swathes of Ukraine's south and east, and Moscow has unilaterally declared them a part of Russia. Moscow plans to conduct elections on the occupied territory there this September. 



Protesters Rally Across Spain Against Housing Crisis, Tourist Flats

05 April 2025, Spain, Madrid: People take part in a demonstration in Madrid to demand political measures to intervene in the housing market. Photo: Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
05 April 2025, Spain, Madrid: People take part in a demonstration in Madrid to demand political measures to intervene in the housing market. Photo: Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Protesters Rally Across Spain Against Housing Crisis, Tourist Flats

05 April 2025, Spain, Madrid: People take part in a demonstration in Madrid to demand political measures to intervene in the housing market. Photo: Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
05 April 2025, Spain, Madrid: People take part in a demonstration in Madrid to demand political measures to intervene in the housing market. Photo: Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Hundreds of thousands marched across 40 Spanish cities on Saturday to protest against soaring rents and a lack of affordable homes in a country that enjoys Europe's fastest economic growth and yet suffers from a severe housing shortage exacerbated by a tourism boom.
Spain's center-left government has struggled to find a balance between attracting tourists and migrants to fill job gaps and keeping rents affordable for average citizens, as short-term rentals have mushroomed in major cities and coastal destinations alike.
"No matter who governs, we must defend housing rights," activists shouted as they rattled keychains in Madrid, where more than 150,000 protesters marched through the capital's center, according to the local tenants' union.
Average Spanish rents have doubled and house prices swelled by 44% over the past decade, data from property website Idealista showed, far outpacing salary growth. Meanwhile, the supply of rentals has halved since the 2020 pandemic.
"They're kicking all of us out to make tourist flats," said Margarita Aizpuru, a 65-year-old resident of the popular Lavapies neighborhood. Nearly 100 families living in her block were told by the building's owners that their rental contracts would not be renewed, Reuters quoted her as saying.
Homeowners associations and experts say that current regulations discourage long-term rentals, and landlords find that renting to tourists or foreigners for days or a couple of months is more profitable and safer.
Spain received a record 94 million tourists in 2024, making it the second most-visited country in the world, as well as an influx of thousands of migrants, both of which are widening a housing deficit of 500,000 homes, the Bank of Spain has said.
According to official data, only about 120,000 new homes are built in Spain every year - a sixth of the levels before the 2008 financial crisis - worsening the already acute supply shortage.
Wendy Davila, 26, said that the problem was not just in the city center, since rents were too high "everywhere".
"It cannot be that to live in Madrid you need to share a flat with four others."