Preparing for an attack by Russia, Zaporizhzhia’s residents cannot escape the threat of nuclear disaster

Kyiv believes Moscow is setting up to strike Europe’s largest power plant, which it occupies. Bel Trew in Nikopol – mere miles from the facility – finds everyone planning for the ‘worst case scenario’

Children risk being shelled in a queue for water in the centre of Nikopol, which lies in the shadow of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant (Bel Trew)

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant shimmers ominously across the cracked earth of the dry reservoir in south Ukraine.

Deep fissures in the dry river beds are all that separate Ukrainian-held territory from Russian-controlled reactors. It is a violent reminder of the last crisis to befall this war-blasted corner of Ukraine and is a warning of a potential future one.

The explosion of the Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka dam last month, an attack Kyiv blames on Moscow (the Kremlin denies the allegation), unleashed the waters of Europe’s biggest reservoir over cities, towns and villages, causing one of the worst ecological disasters on the continent in recent history.