Reported fighting broke out near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant Thursday night, causing a fire to erupt.
President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Thursday night about the fighting between military forces near the plant.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba tweeted “Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Fire has already broke out”.
“If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!” Kuleba continued.
Other reports say the threat is not as severe as Kuleba’s warning. Ukrainian officials reported that the Zaporizhzhia plant had been secured after fighting.
“Europeans, please wake up. Tell your politicians – Russian troops are shooting at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a video address.
The International Atomic Energy Agency tweeted Friday morning that the “safety systems of the plant’s six reactors had not been affected and there has been no release of radioactive material”.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv called the attack a “war crime” and said “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further”.
