Ukraine’s nuclear agency says no leaks have been detected at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Station in southeastern Ukraine after responders finally put out a fire that burned out of control overnight after it was shelled by invading Russian forces.
Local officials said Russian forces opened fire on the facility as their column approached Zaporizhzhya, and the regional authority later confirmed that the Russians had seized the plant.
The incident prompted the UN and international atomic authorities to adopt emergency postures, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said he would request an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation.
“Changes in the radiation situation have not been registered,” Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate (SNRIU) said early on March 4.
Russian troops seized the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the first day of the assault, and the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said increased levels of radiation in the area at the time were a result of radioactive dust kicked up by heavy military equipment.
Meanwhile, bombed residential buildings were smoldering on the northern edge of the capital, Kyiv, and Russia’s intensified attack on southern cities continued as the ninth day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine dawned on March 4.
The nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya, on the banks of a reservoir on the Dnieper River, is the largest in Europe and generates more than one-fifth of Ukraine’s domestic electricity.
The UN’s nuclear agency said early on March 4 that it was putting its incident and emergency center into full response mode due to the situation.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said late on March 3 that there were no initial signs of elevated radiation levels at the plant.
Video showed a five-story building, reportedly a training facility, burning at Zaporizhzhya.
Zaporizhzhya Mayor Dmytro Orlov said Russian forces had opened fire on a checkpoint a few kilometers from the nuclear plant and on civilians there and shelling pounded the area for at least an hour. He said the city had no water supply and power outages.
The regional Ukrainian administration in Zaporizhzhya later said Russian troops had seized the plant and “operational personnel are monitoring the condition of power units.”
Kyiv confirmed that Russian forces entered the complex.
A protocol to the Geneva Convention restricts military attacks on nuclear facilities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a video address after the fire began urging Europeans to “please wake up. Tell your politicians — Russian troops are shooting at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to update them about the situation at Zaporizhzhya.
The White House said “President Biden joined President Zelenskiy in urging Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site.”
Johnson’s office said “the reckless actions of [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe.”
Granholm said on Twitter that she had spoken to Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and that the reactors at Zaporizhzhya were “protected by robust containment structures” and were being “safely shut down.”
The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said at a special meeting of his agency in Vienna on March 2 that the UN nuclear watchdog was working with “all sides” to explore how to ensure safety and how the plants and their staffs could be supported.
Elsewhere, residential buildings smoldered in the city of Chernihiv, outside Kyiv, early on March 4 after heavy bombardment overnight that caused casualties.
Intense Russian bombing and encirclement efforts also continue in cities in southern Ukraine, where Russia reportedly occupied its first sizable city, Kherson, and Russian forces are apparently seeking to gain control of the strategic Black Sea coast.
Thousands of people are thought to have been killed and more than 1 million Ukrainians have fled west amid a burgeoning refugee crisis since Putin launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
