RUSSIA rejected appeals from the United Nations today for complete demilitarisation of the area around a nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.

A Russian official said that the move would make the Zaporizhzhia complex, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, more vulnerable following earlier warnings from Moscow that it could be used as a weapon in the war.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres bowed to a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the site.

“Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” Mr Guterres said, saying that “the facility must not be used as part of any military operation.”

Ukraine has accused Russia of turning the site into an army base, but the Russian Foreign Ministry has denied this.

Information and Press Department deputy director Ivan Nechayev said: “Their implementation will make the plant even more vulnerable.”

Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev accused the United States of encouraging Ukrainian attacks on the plant.

“In case of a technological disaster, its consequences will be felt in every corner of the world,” he said.

“Washington, London and their accomplices will bear full responsibility for that.”

Meanwhile, two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region on Ukraine’s north-eastern border were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out at a munitions depot.

No immediate casualties were reported.

The fire is the latest of destructive incidents on Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine or inside Russia since the war broke out in February.

Just days earlier, another ammunition depot exploded on the Crimean peninsula.

And last week, nine Russian warplanes were reportedly destroyed at an air base in Crimea.

Ukrainian authorities have not publicly claimed responsibility, but Mr Zelensky made implications on attacks behind enemy lines.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that statements from Ukrainian officials about striking facilities in Crimea mark “an escalation of the conflict openly encouraged by the United States and its Nato allies.”