"Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post on Twitter. "Fire has already broke out. Russians must immediately cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone."
Mayor Dmytro Orlov of the nearby town of Energodar said that Russian and local Ukrainian forces have engaged in fierce fighting, resulting in casualties, according to Reuters.
“As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire,” Orlov said, according to Reuters. He added that the situation poses a threat to world security.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in post on Twitter that it was aware of the reported attack on the plant.
IAEA is aware of reports of shelling at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), in contact with Ukrainian authorities about situation, the agency tweeted.
Ukrainian authorities wrote a letter hours earlier to Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director Deneral of the IAEA, sounding the alarm that Russian tanks had broken through ‘the block-post’ into Enerhodar.
“The battle is going on in the town of Enerhodar and on the road to the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) site,” the letter read, describing the situation as critical, according to the agency.
This comes after Ukrainian officials warned days earlier that Russian troops had increased their military presence near the plant and pointed a multiple rocket launcher at it. Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs said the country's military was headed to the region to defend the plant.
“The armed forces, national guard and civilian militia will do anything to prevent a catastrophe, we are ready to destroy the enemy. But we have to be ready for anything,” Vadim Denisenko, advisor to the minister of internal affairs, said at the time.
Russian forces previously took control of the Chernobyl nuclear site last Thursday, less than 24 hours after the invasion of Ukraine began.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops around the still-operating Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya — Europe’s largest — led to stark warnings from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ABC reported.
Any damage to the facilities, either from the fighting or from interruption of normal operations “could have severe consequences, aggravating human suffering and causing environmental harm,” Rafael Grossi, Director of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, told ABC.
“There is nothing normal,” Grossi added, “about the circumstances under which the professionals at Ukraine's four nuclear power plants are managing to keep the reactors that produce half of Ukraine's electricity working."
Ukrainian officials have asked for a 30-kilometer (18-mile) safety zone around nuclear plants.
Today we’ll look at another rising risk from the fighting — this time in Africa. Then we’ll turn to the passage of a pivotal piece of legislation that could allow victims of water contamination at a Marine Corps base have their day in court.
