The reported artillery strike comes hours after the UN chief warned against such suicide attacks.
According to Vladimir Rogov, a member of the local administration who claimed at least seven shells hit the Russian-controlled city that hosts the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the largest such facility in Europe, Ukrainian forces once again targeted Energodar with artillery on Thursday night.
Rogov, a member of the Russian military-civilian administration in Ukraine's Zaporozhye Region, said on his Telegram channel that heavy artillery fire targeted the city around 10: 50 pm local time.
Local authorities told Russian media that the Zaporozhye NPP suffered no damage in the strike. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the situation around the nuclear facility earlier on Thursday, during his meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv.
While he stopped short of blaming either side, Guterres has again called for an agreement to demilitarize the area, insisting that an agreement was urgently needed to establish Zaporozhye as a purely civilian infrastructure to ensure the plant's safety.
The UN chief said that the facility must not be used as part of a military operation and that any damage to the plant would be suicide, and that common sense must prevail to avoid any actions that could endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant. Moscow has called for an International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant, which Guterres said could only happen with Kiev s approval. Zelensky stated on Thursday that any mission can only take place via Kiev-controlled territory, while calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from the area.
According to Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Ivan Nechayev, removing Russian troops would only make the nuclear power plant more vulnerable, citing repeated provocations from Kiev's forces and dismissing the idea of a demilitarized zone as unacceptable. On Thursday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry warned that Ukraine might carry out artillery strikes on the Zaporozhye NPP amid the visit of Guterres and Erdogan and then accuse Moscow of causing a disaster at the site. Ukraine's military intelligence responded by saying Russian forces might stage a nuclear provocation in the territory they control.
Russian troops took control of the Zaporozhye NPP early on in the course of military operations in Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry denies deploying heavy weapons at the nuclear site, but insists that only Russian troops at the facility are lightly armed guards who provide physical security against provocations. Moscow has accused Kiev of conducting frequent drone and artillery strikes against the nuclear plant and the city of Energodar since mid-July. Kiev has denied responsibility and said Russian forces were attacking the plant to discredit Ukraine, while also claiming that Russia is using the facility as a military base.