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Zaporizhzhia accusations and strikes on 16 July 2022
Summary
A look back at the claims about the nuclear plant and the attacks on Chuhuiv and Nikopol on that date.
What did the war look like on 16 July 2022? Two strands stood out: an allegation about Europe's largest nuclear plant, and a day of deadly strikes on towns far from the main front.
The president of Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear energy authority, accused Russian forces of using the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to store weapons and of shelling the surrounding area from it. The accusation put a nuclear facility at the centre of the argument over how the war was being fought.
Elsewhere, Russian missiles struck Chuhuiv in Kharkiv Oblast, killing three civilians and injuring three others. In Nikopol, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, more than 50 Grad rockets hit the city and killed two people.
The strikes came after Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the military to expand operations in Ukraine in order to "protect the Donbas". Taken together, the day's reports showed attacks reaching civilian areas in several regions, while the Energoatom claim raised the stakes around a site that Russian forces held.
