Russian troops are shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station in Ukraine.
“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram.
“There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe.”
The plant accounts for about one quarter of Ukraine’s power generation.
The fighting at Enerhodar, a city on the Dnieper River that accounts for one-quarter of the country’s power generation, came as another round of talks between the two sides yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors inside Ukraine to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.
The mayor of Enerhodar said Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the city’s outskirts.
Video showed flames and black smoke rising above the city of more than 50,000, with people streaming past wrecked cars, just a day after the UN atomic watchdog agency expressed grave concern that the fighting could cause accidental damage to Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Twitter that it's been informed by Ukraine’s nuclear regulator that “there has been no change reported in radiation levels” at a nuclear power station shelled by Russian troops.
The agency says Director General Mariano Grossi was in touch with Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Schmygal and the Ukrainian regulator and operator about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Grossi “appeals for halt of use of force and warns of severe danger if reactors hit,” the IAEA said in another tweet.
The agency says Ukraine told it the fire hasn't affected “essential” equipment and plant personnel are taking mitigatory actions.
An official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, not authorised to speak publicly and speaking on condition of anonymity, says the reactors have not yet been damaged and radiation levels are normal.
Zelensky updated US President Joe Biden about the fire.
The White House said Biden and Zelensky urged Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site.
“If there is an explosion – that’s the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe,” Zelensky said in an emotional speech in the middle of the night.
“Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops. Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station,” he said
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