According to Ukrainian sources, there was a fire in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant near the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. The reason was heavy fire from Russian troops. According to the authorities, the situation is now under control. Nothing is known about the dead and injured.
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According to Kiev, the Russian army occupied the site of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. “The operating staff controls the energy blocks and ensures their operation,” said the Ukrainian nuclear regulatory authority on Friday.
The manager of the nuclear power plant said that firefighters had reached the plant in the meantime, wrote the head of the regional military administration, Oleksander Staruch, on Facebook on Friday night. As a result, the fire broke out in a building for training events and a laboratory.
The mayor of the nearby town of Enerhodar described the situation as “extremely tense”. “We recommend staying at home,” Dmytro Orlov wrote on Friday morning on the Telegram news channel. But it was quiet on the streets, there were no strangers there. He apparently meant Russian troops. “During the night, Enerhodar remained without heating during the shelling due to damage to a line.” Now ways are being sought to repair the damage, he continued. In the morning there was no more shelling.
During the night, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reported that the facility was being shelled by Russian fire “from all sides”. “The fire has already broken out. If it explodes it will be 10 times bigger than Chernobyl!” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. These statements could not initially be verified independently.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sharply criticized the actions of the Russian military. “There are tanks equipped with thermal imaging cameras. That means they know where they’re shooting, they’ve prepared for it,” he said in a video message on Telegram. “If there’s an explosion, that’s the end of everything. The end of Europe,” Zelenskyy warned. These claims have not yet been verified either.
According to Zelensky, no other country in the world has ever shelled nuclear facilities. “The terrorist state is now shifting to nuclear terror.” Apparently, Russia wants to “repeat” the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
On April 26, 1986, one of the worst catastrophes in the peaceful use of nuclear energy occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. After the explosion of a reactor block of the nuclear power plant, radioactive substances spread over large parts of Europe over several days.
The now contested Zaporizhia plant is now the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and has six reactors. The oldest reactor went into operation in 1984.
London calls for UN Security Council meeting
According to international law expert Claus Kress, a targeted Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant would be classified as a war crime. “A targeted attack on a civilian nuclear power plant, yes, that would be a war crime,” said the Cologne scientist on Deutschlandfunk on Friday. Such a case would fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. There, Kress advises chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who has launched official investigations into war crimes in Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia.
A spokesman for the nuclear power plant, Andrei Tus, reported a fire in the area early Friday morning after an electrical system at the plant was hit by a Russian attack. The fire brigade was initially unable to reach the scene of the fire.
“The first block of the plant has already been hit. Stop it!” Tus said in a video on Telegram. Videos that have not yet been verified should show how a fire spread across the site after a Russian attack.
After the events became known, US President Joe Biden called on Russia to end its military activities in the area around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. In a phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Biden asked “about the current status of the fire” at the nuclear facility, the White House said. The US President also spoke to the head of the US National Administration for Nuclear Safety, Jill Hruby.
Meanwhile, Great Britain called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The “reckless” behavior of Russian President Vladimir Putin could “directly threaten the security of all of Europe,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office on Friday night.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko reiterated his country’s demands for NATO intervention. “Therefore, we demand not only a professional assessment of what is happening, but real intervention with the toughest measures, including by NATO and the countries that have nuclear weapons,” Halushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Halushchenko wrote that he had already called US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and asked for the airspace to be closed over Ukraine. “We stand on the brink of a major technological catastrophe in human history.”
Atomic Energy Agency warns of ‘serious danger’
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna responded to reports of fighting in Zaporizhia.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi is speaking to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal about the “serious situation” at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the agency wrote on Twitter on Friday morning.
In addition, Grossi called for a cessation of violence and “warns of serious dangers if reactors are hit,” it said.
In another tweet, the IAEA announced that, according to initial findings, there was no increased radiation exposure around the nuclear power plant. The nuclear supervisory authority of Ukraine announced that “no change in radiation levels” had been reported at the site of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
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On Thursday, the Ukrainian government reported to the IAEA that Russian infantrymen were a few kilometers from Zaporizhia. According to the local administration, around 100 Russian military vehicles had advanced near Zaporizhia.
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According to the IAEA, Russia itself later announced that Russian units had taken control of the area around the nuclear power plant on the Dnipro River. From the point of view of the IAEA, the plant itself is also under Russian control, although operation is continued by Ukrainian employees and under the supervision of the authorities in Kyiv. There is still no official confirmation that the nuclear power plant was taken by Russian troops.
The mayor of the nearby city of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, had informed about the approaching column via telegram. Gunshots could be heard in the city, he said. For security reasons, the fighting must be stopped immediately, Orlow demanded.
He previously reported that Russian troops had fired on a checkpoint set up by civilians. Two people were injured in the process. This information could not initially be verified independently. Russia has vehemently denied targeting civilians. (AFP, dpa)
