Russian forces have seized control of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe after conducting an overnight assault of the complex during which an adjacent training facility was set alight, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
The intense fighting for control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in the south-east of Ukraine sparked fears of nuclear disaster, with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky publishing a video early on Friday morning in which he revealed the nuclear plant had been set ablaze after heavy Russian shelling of the vicinity, and urged Europe to “wake up.”
An update from regional Ukraine authorities confirmed that Russian forces now occupy the facility and “operational personnel are monitoring the condition of power units.”
During the tense conflict, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called for an end to the use of force and warned of “serious danger is the reactors are damaged,” adding that its Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi had been in contact with Ukrainian authorities and the plant’s operator to assess the situation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “calls for an end to the use of force and warns of a serious danger if the reactors are damaged,” the organization wrote on Twitter, adding that Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi is in contact with Ukrainian authorities and the plant’s operator to assess the situation.
Zelensky on Friday accused Moscow of resorting to “nuclear terror” and of wanting to repeat the Chernobyl disaster following the seemingly indiscriminate shelling around the nuclear power plant site.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which began generating electricity in 1985, has six pressurized water reactors fueled by Uranium-235 with a total capacity of 5,700 megawatts. It is the largest nuclear plant in Europe and among the ten largest in the world.
