Anxiety about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is growingafter the Moscow-installed governor of the Ukrainian region where it is located ordered civilian evacuations.

Key points:

• Russian forcesare ordering civilians to leave towns around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
• The evacuation zone includesEnerhodar, which is home to most of the plant’s staff
• IAEA head Rafael Mariano Grossi says the situation is “increasingly unpredictable”

Russian soldiers are evacuating people from Zaporizhzhia and 18 nearby towns, ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi has called on both Russia and Ukraine to ensure that there will be no fighting near theZaporizhzhia plant to prevent what he calls “the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences”.

The towns and villages being evacuated includeEnerhodar, which is home to most of the plant’s staff.

The Russia-backed governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province, Yevgeny Balitsky, saidmore…