LAST UPDATE | 4 Mar 2022
RUSSIAN FORCES SEIZED control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant today after a battle with Ukrainian troops that caused a fire and fears of a catastrophic accident.
The Ukrainian nuclear regulator said that the fire had been extinguished and no radiation leak had been detected, with site staff still able to work at the Zaporizhzhia site.
“The Zaporizhzhia NPP site has been seized by the military forces of the Russian Federation,” the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine said, in a statement.
“The fire was extinguished by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service units. Information on the dead and injured is absent.”
Earlier, fighting had erupted between Russian invasion forces pushing towards the city of Zaporizhzhia and Ukrainian defenders, causing a blaze at the plant and global alarm.
The power station is located in southern Ukraine on the Dnipro river and produces a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity.
Any fire in a nuclear plant revives memories of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, also in Ukraine, which left hundreds dead and spread radioactive contamination west across Europe.
Of the six reactors at Zaporizhzhia, the agency said, one is in operation and producing power, one has been turned off and four are being cooled to prevent overheating.
The regulator did not say, however, what each reactor’s status had been before the fire.
An on site inspection is being carried out by Ukrainian staff.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg decried Russia’s “recklessness” over the shelling of the plant and demanded Moscow stop the war against its neighbour.
“Overnight we have also seen reports about the attack against the nuclear power plant. This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engaging good faith in diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg said ahead of a meeting with Western foreign ministers.
Allies are meeting today for a busy day of diplomacy in Brussels looking to keep the pressure on after hitting Moscow with a wave of punishing sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
NATO members have rushed thousands of troops to eastern Europe to bolster the alliance’s flank closest to Russia and are sending weapons to help Ukraine defend itself.
But NATO has ruled out intervening militarily over fears of getting into a direct conflict with Moscow that could spiral into nuclear war.
That has so far included rebuffing Ukrainian calls for a no-fly zone to be imposed over their country to halt bombings by the Kremlin’s forces.
“We know that our red line is to make sure that there’s no international conflict,” said Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.
“At the same time, I would say that we want to make sure that scenarios are being discussed, and we want to make sure also, that throughout the alliance, and throughout all the countries that support Ukraine, that we can have discussions, because we need to stop this war.”
The ministers holding talks at NATO, the European Union and G7 today are to take stock of the impact of sanctions on Russia and weigh tougher steps including calls to hit Russia’s key oil and gas exports.
“Everything remains on the table,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock insisted more sanctions would be on the way against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
“Beyond the three severe packages of (EU) sanctions that we have already decided on, we will take further measures that target Putin’s centre of power,” she said.
But key European powers such as Germany remain reluctant to target Russian energy exports that make up some 40 percent of gas and 10 percent of oil coming to the EU.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney also denounced the attack on the power plant today.
He said: “Russia’s attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is utterly reckless. Russia’s military activity in the area must cease immediately. This is a grave threat to the European continent.”
Russia’s attack on the #Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is utterly reckless. Russia’s military activity in the area must cease immediately. This is a grave threat to the European continent. Our full support to the @iaea and DG @rafaelmgrossi in their essential work. @dfatirl https://t.co/BPaYnJwBOu
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) March 4, 2022
‘Nuclear terror’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of resorting to “nuclear terror” and wanting to “repeat” the Chernobyl disaster after he said invading Russian forces deliberately attacked the nuclear power plant.
Ukraine’s emergency services said it was able to put out the fire after the Russian military eventually allowed rescuers to access the site.
“At 6.20am (4.20am Irish time) the fire in the training building of Zaporizhzhia NPP in Energodar was extinguished. There are no victims,” the emergency services said in a statement on Facebook.
Zelensky had earlier begged world leaders to wake up and prevent Europe from “dying from a nuclear disaster” after Russian forces attacked the continent’s largest plant.
“No country other than Russia has ever fired on nuclear power units,” he said in a video message released by his office.
“This is the first time in our history. In the history of mankind. The terrorist state now resorted to nuclear terror.”
Zelensky said the troops had knowingly fired on the nuclear facility.
“These are tanks equipped with thermal imagers, so they know where they are shooting,” said Zelensky.
The station at Zaporizhzhia, an industrial city in the southeast, supplies an estimated 40% of the country’s nuclear power and, according to Zelensky, houses six of Ukraine’s 15 reactors.
Ukrainian emergency services had earlier raised alarm that Russian troops were preventing them from reaching the fire at the plant.
“The invaders are not authorising Ukrainian public rescue units to begin extinguishing the fire,” the emergency services said on Facebook, stating that the blaze had affected a “training building” and that only one of the reactors was operational.
Local officials had reassured the UN’s atomic watchdog that “essential” equipment at the station was unaffected and radiation levels were normal.
Ukraine’s nuclear facilities have been a main point of concern after Russia’s military invaded the country last week and began bombarding cities with shells and missiles.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is located in the southern Ukraine steppe on the Dnieper River, around 525 kilometres south of Chernobyl.
“If there is an explosion, it is the end of everything. The end of Europe,” Zelensky warned. “Only immediate European action can stop Russian troops.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say