A fire broke out in a building outside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine during intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
On Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba claimed that the Russian troops opened fire from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Kuleba warned that the fallout from a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia plant would be ten times worse than the Chernobyl disaster.
“If it blows up, it will be ten times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone,” Kuleba tweeted.
Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities had claimed that the Russian troops were attempting to seize the plant and had entered the town with tanks.
According to the reports, the spokesperson for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has confirmed that background radiation levels had not changed. The authorities also said there was no threat to radiation security.
A purported video of the fire incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has gone viral on social media sites, which show smoke and flames coming from an unidentified building.
Dmytro Orlov, Mayor of the Energodar, said due to the continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire.
Following the fire incident at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a tweet that it was “aware of reports of shelling” at the power plant and was in contact with Ukrainian authorities about the situation.
Zaporizhzhia provides more than a fifth of the total electricity generated in Ukraine.
Weeks ago, Russian troops took control of the defunct Chernobyl plant, 100 km north of Kyiv. In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant had suffered a meltdown, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, affecting more than half of Europe due to radioactive radiation.