(Kyiv) The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest in central Ukraine, was engulfed in fire on Friday after a bombardment by Russian forces, and Kyiv demanded an immediate ceasefire to avoid a disaster.
Posted at 7:38 p.m.
Updated at 9:02 p.m.
Ukrainian authorities said they were able to send firefighters to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, where a fire broke out after Russian fire, ensuring that the nuclear security of the place was now assured.
“The director of the plant has indicated that nuclear safety is now guaranteed. According to the officials of the power plant, a building for training and a laboratory are affected by a fire”, indicated on Facebook Oleksandre Staroukh, head of the military administration of the Zaporizhia region.
The Ukrainian nuclear regulator has detected “no change” in the level of radioactivity at the Zaporijjia power plant, targeted by Russian bombing which caused a fire, announced the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA).
“The Ukrainian regulator informs the IAEA that no change has been reported in the radiation levels at the site of the Zaporizhia power plant,” the organization tweeted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused Moscow of resorting to “nuclear terror” and wanting to “repeat” the Chernobyl disaster.
“We alert everyone to the fact that no other country apart from Russia has ever fired on nuclear power plants. This is the first time in our history, the first time in the history of mankind. This terrorist state is now resorting to nuclear terror,” he claimed in a video released by the Ukrainian presidency.
“Following a bombardment by Russian forces on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, a fire broke out,” spokesman Andrei Touz said in a video posted on the plant’s Telegram account.
“Firefighters cannot reach the place of the fire and put it out. The shots fall very close. The first electrical unit of the plant has already been hit. Stop that! “, he continued in another video.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has urged Russia to stop targeting the plant, which has six nuclear reactors and provides much of the country’s energy.
“If it explodes, it will be ten times worse than Chernobyl! The Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, let the firefighters pass and allow a security perimeter to be established,” tweeted Mr. Kuleba, who said that the Russian forces were firing “from all sides”.
US President Joe Biden spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky about the nuclear power plant.
Earlier Thursday, Ukraine told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Russian tanks and infantry were near Enerhodar, a few kilometers from Zaporizhia. And the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, had demanded that all use of force in the vicinity cease immediately.
On February 24, fighting had already taken place near the former Chernobyl power plant, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history about a hundred kilometers north of Kyiv, and which is now in the hands of Russian troops.
In statements on Russian television Thursday, President Vladimir Putin gave no hope of easing the offensive.
“The special military operation is going strictly according to schedule, according to plan,” he said, paying tribute to Russian soldiers and their “valuable fight against neo-Nazis” and “foreign mercenaries” who he says are using civilians as “human shields” in Ukraine.
Facebook inaccessible in Russia
In Russia, the Internet pages of Facebook and several independent or foreign media were partly inaccessible on Friday. And the Duma was to consider on Friday a bill providing for up to 15 years in prison for any publication of “fake news” concerning the army.
Russian forces are stepping up their strikes on major cities in Ukraine. Kyiv notably accused Moscow on Thursday of having bombed a residential area in Cherniguiv, on the road to Kyiv, killing 33 people.
In addition to homes, “Russian aircraft attacked two schools in the Stara Podsoudovka district,” local governor Viatcheslav Tchaous wrote on his Telegram account, posting images of gutted buildings.
Images from the emergency service showed rescuers carrying bodies.
Vladimir Putin showered French President Emmanuel Macron’s hopes of mediation on Thursday, telling him on the phone that Russia “intends to continue its fight without compromise against members of nationalist groups who commit war crimes”, and repeating his demand for demilitarization and neutral status for Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
“The worst is yet to come”, Mr. Putin wants to “take control” of all of Ukraine, judged the French president after this call, according to the Elysee.
Humanitarian Corridors
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met on the Polish-Belarusian border on Thursday for a second attempt at talks, in which Kyiv hoped to secure a truce. “Unfortunately, there are not yet the expected results for Ukraine. There is only one solution to organize humanitarian corridors” for the evacuation of civilians, wrote on Twitter Mikhaïlo Podoliak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
More than a million refugees have already fled Ukraine, according to the UN.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has become a hero in his country, for his part challenged the master of the Kremlin to meet him. “I have to talk to Putin […]because it is the only way to stop this war,” he said.
He again urged Westerners to increase their support, to “close the skies” of Ukraine to Russian planes, and warned them: “If we disappear, may God protect us, then it will be Latvia, Lithuania, Russia. Estonia, etc. Up to the Berlin Wall, believe me”.
The Russian army seems to have further strengthened its firepower to accelerate the capture of strategic cities. It took control at dawn on Thursday of Kherson, a metropolis of 290,000 inhabitants near the Crimean peninsula, after violent bombardments.
The head of the Kherson regional administration, Gennady Lagouta, on Telegram called on residents to stay at home. “The occupants are in all parts of the city and very dangerous,” he warned.
Further east, in Mariupol, the mayor accused Russia of wanting to besiege the city. This major Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov, a key site for the advance of Russian forces, is “resisting” for the moment, according to the Ukrainian army.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Brussels overnight for talks with NATO and EU officials on Friday, after which he is due to visit Poland, the three Baltic countries and Moldova.
The latter, which fears to be the next target of Moscow, announced Thursday that it has officially submitted its candidacy for entry into the European Union, like Georgia, following the example of Ukraine.