Fighting around Ukrainian nuclear plant heightens safety fears

DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine – Fighting raged on Saturday near a sprawling nuclear power plant in the south of Ukraine, despite warnings from nuclear-safety watchdogs this past week that conditions there were posing risks and “out of control.”

The Russian military has been using the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest, as a base to assault the Ukrainian-controlled town of Nikopol across the river. On Saturday, it fired a volley of Grad rockets that damaged 11 apartment buildings and 36 privately owned houses, and wounded three people, the Ukrainian military said.