Russian military forces have seized Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine's southeast, a local authority said on Friday.
"Operational personnel are monitoring the condition of power units," it said on social media, adding that the efforts sought to ensure the operations were in line with safety requirements.
Ukraine has said Russian forces attacked the plant in the early hours of Friday, setting an adjacent five-story training facility on fire as they pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea.
The regional military administration said in a statement that a fire at the Zaporizhzhia plant in Enerhodar ignited by Russian shelling was extinguished and that there is damage to the compartment of reactor No. 1 but it does not affect the safety of the power unit. Operational personnel are ensuring its safe operation.
No information was immediately available about casualties.
Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry blamed the attack at the site on Ukrainian saboteurs, calling it a "monstrous provocation".
A Russian defense ministry spokesman said the nuclear plant was operating normally and the area had been under Russian control since Feb. 28.
"However, last night on the territory adjacent to the power plant, an attempt was made by the Kyiv nationalist regime to carry out a monstrous provocation," spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Leading nuclear authorities were worried — but not panicked — about the damage to the power station. Ukrainian officials later said that radiation levels in the area weren't at dangerous levels. The assault, however, led to phone calls between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders. The U.S. Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.
The attack on the eastern city of Enerhodar and its Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant came as the invasion entered its second week and another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.
Nuclear plant spokesman Andriy Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells fell directly on the facility and set fire to one of its six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, but there is nuclear fuel inside, he said.
"There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe," Tuz said in a video statement.
Hours later, there was still confusion about what was happening at the plant.
The Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said that measurements taken at 7am Friday (0500 GMT) showed radiation levels in the region "remain unchanged and do not endanger the lives and health of the population."
Ukraine's state emergency service announced on Facebook on Friday that 'the fire in the training building of Zaporizhzhya NPP in Enerhodar was extinguished. There are no victims." It did not mention the fire in a reactor building that had raised international concern.
The mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, announced on his Telegram channel Friday morning that "the fire at the (nuclear plant) has indeed been extinguished." His office told The Associated Press that the information came from firefighters who were allowed onto the site overnight. The mayor's office could not provide more details about which buildings were concerned.
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted a plea to the Russians to stop the assault.
The assault renewed fears that the invasion could damage one of Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors and set off another emergency like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world's worst nuclear disaster, which happened about 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the capital.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in "coming hours" to raise the issue of Russia's attack on the nuclear power plant, according to a statement from his office.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tweeted that the Zaporizhzhia plant's reactors were protected by robust containment structures and were being safely shut down.
In an emotional speech in the middle of the night, Zelensky said he feared an explosion that would be "the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe."
"Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops," he said. "Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station."
But most experts saw nothing to indicate an impending disaster.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the fire had not affected essential equipment and that Ukraine's nuclear regulator reported no change in radiation levels. The American Nuclear Society concurred, saying that the latest radiation levels remained within natural background levels.
"The real threat to Ukrainian lives continues to be the violent invasion and bombing of their country," the group said in a statement.
Jon Wolfsthal, who served during the Obama administration as the senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, said the plant's reactors have thick concrete containment domes that should protect them from tank and artillery fire.
But he too was concerned about a potential loss of power at the plant, which could imperil its ability to keep the nuclear fuel cool.
Prior to the shelling, the Ukrainian state atomic energy company reported that a Russian military column was heading toward the nuclear plant. Loud shots and rocket fire were heard late Thursday.
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Ukrainian service member stands against building ignited by Russian shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine
(Photo: AP)
Later, a livestreamed security camera linked from the homepage of the Zaporizhzhia plant showed what appeared to be armored vehicles rolling into the facility's parking lot and shining spotlights on the building where the camera was mounted.
Then there were what appeared to be muzzle flashes from vehicles, followed by nearly simultaneous explosions in surrounding buildings. Smoke rose into the frame and drifted away.
Vladimir Putin's forces have brought their superior firepower to bear over the past few days, launching hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites around the country and making significant gains in the south.
The Russians announced the capture of the southern city of Kherson, a vital Black Sea port of 280,000, and local Ukrainian officials confirmed the takeover of the government headquarters there, making it the first major city to fall since the invasion began a week ago.
Heavy fighting continued on the outskirts of another strategic port, Mariupol, on the Azov Sea. The battles have knocked out the city's electricity, heat and water systems, as well as most phone service, officials said. Food deliveries to the city were also cut.
Severing Ukraine's access to the Black and Azov seas would deal a crippling blow to its economy and allow Russia to build a land corridor to Crimea, seized by Moscow in 2014.
Overall, the outnumbered, outgunned Ukrainians have put up stiff resistance, staving off the swift victory that Russia appeared to have expected. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia's seizure of Crimea gave it a logistical advantage in that part of the country, with shorter supply lines that smoothed the offensive there.
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Ukrainian civilians practice throwing Molotov cocktails amid Russia invasion, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine
(Photo: Reuters)
Ukrainian leaders called on the people to defend their homeland by cutting down trees, erecting barricades in the cities and attacking enemy columns from the rear. In recent days, authorities have issued weapons to civilians and taught them how to make Molotov cocktails.
"Total resistance. ... This is our Ukrainian trump card, and this is what we can do best in the world," Oleksiy Arestovich, an aide to Zelensky, said in a video message, recalling guerrilla actions in Nazi-occupied Ukraine during World War II.
The second round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was held in neighboring Belarus. But the two sides appeared far apart going into the meeting, and Putin warned Ukraine that it must quickly accept the Kremlin's demand for its "demilitarization" and declare itself neutral, renouncing its bid to join NATO.
Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron he was determined to press on with his attack "until the end," according to Macron's office.
The two sides said that they tentatively agreed to allow cease-fires in areas designated safe corridors, and that they would seek to work out the necessary details quickly. A Zelensky adviser also said a third round of talks will be held early next week.
Despite a profusion of evidence of civilian casualties and destruction of property by the Russian military, Putin decried what he called an "anti-Russian disinformation campaign" and insisted that Moscow uses "only precision weapons to exclusively destroy military infrastructure."
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Russian and Ukrainian diplomats meet for a second round of ceasefire talks at the Polish-Belarusian border
(Photo: EPA)
Putin claimed that the Russian military had already offered safe corridors for civilians to flee, but he asserted without evidence that Ukrainian "neo-Nazis" were preventing people from leaving and were using them as human shields.
The Pentagon set up a direct communication link to Russia's Ministry of Defense earlier this week to avoid the possibility of a miscalculation sparking conflict between Moscow and Washington, according to a U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the link had not been announced.
First published: 09:34, 03.04.22