The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised grave concerns on Saturday about the shelling the previous day at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, saying the action showed the risk of a nuclear disaster.

IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said he was "extremely concerned" by the attacks on Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

These strikes threaten "the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond," Grossi said.

"Any military firepower directed at or from the facility would amount to playing with fire, with potentially catastrophic consequences," he added.

The New York Times reported Saturday: "Fighting raged on Saturday near a sprawling nuclear power plant in the south of Ukraine, despite warnings from nuclear safety watchdogs earlier this week that conditions there were posing risks and "out of control."