Explainer-The vast nuclear plant in the eye of the war in Ukraine

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine August 22, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been shelled in recent days, raising the possibility of a grave accident just 500 km (around 300 miles) from the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the area around the plant, Europe's largest, to be demilitarised. A U.N. nuclear agency team hopes to visit the site in the near future.