Ukraine accuses Russian forces of firing at protesters in city of Enerhodar

KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official accuses Russian forces of opening fire on peaceful demonstrators, injuring four with “severe burns,” in the southern city of Enerhodar occupied by Moscow’s forces.

Russian troops took control of Enerhodar, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, in early March.

“Today in Enerhodar, city residents gathered again for a rally in support of Ukraine, singing the anthem,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova says on Telegram.

“The occupiers used light and noise grenades and opened mortar fire on the residents, four people were injured and severely burned,” she says.

Videos circulating on social media show people fleeing from a square in Enerhodar amid explosions and clouds of white smoke.

Denisova says some of the protesters were “forcibly put in paddy wagons and taken away in an unknown direction.”

She accuses Russian forces of “terrorizing the local population.”

Ukraine has previously accused the Russian army of firing on peaceful protesters in Kherson, the first major city to fall to the Russian army since Moscow invaded in late February.

Denisova says there is no information on Enerhodar’s “abducted” mayor, Ivan Samoiydyuk, “who did not agree to cooperate with the occupiers.”

Fighting around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Enerhodar last month led to international outrage, with memories of Ukraine’s Chernobyl disaster still fresh.”