A fire broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — and Ukraine said it had been bombed by Russian troops.
Authorities say the facility is now safe and radiation levels are normal.
World leaders have accused Russia of endangering the security of an entire continent, and the Ukrainian president has accused Russia of “nuclear terror.”
U.S. President Joe Biden urged Moscow to stop its military activities around the site, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Russia’s “horrific attacks” “must stop immediately.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the “reckless” attack could “directly threaten the security of all of Europe.” The three leaders spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky, meanwhile, said Russia wanted a repeat of Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.
“If there is an explosion, it’s the end of everything. The end of Europe,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry blamed the attack on Ukrainian saboteurs, calling it a “monstrous provocation” without providing evidence.
A video feed from the nuclear plant showed explosions lighting up the night sky and sending up plumes of smoke.
According to the Ukrainian nuclear inspectorate, buildings around one of the plant’s six power units were damaged without affecting its safety.
Plant workers said the fire — which has since been extinguished — broke out in a training building outside the plant’s perimeter and that only one of the plant’s six reactors was operational.
A resident who lives nearby said he saw the Russian military attack the site. “This is just terrorism… It’s worrying not only for our region, but for Ukraine and for the world,” Kirill Dovzhik told the BBC.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the fire did not affect “essential” equipment at the plant and that there was no increase in radiation levels.
But the IAEA said it was in “full 24/7 response mode” due to the “serious situation” at the power plant.
Ukrainian emergency services said they were initially prevented from going to the fire site, prompting President Biden to publicly call on Russia to allow firefighters to enter the site.
Boris Johnson said he would call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday over the attack.
Map of nuclear power plants in Ukraine
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Experts said the attack on a nuclear plant was unprecedented and the situation was still very dangerous.
Dr. Graham Allison, a nuclear safety expert at Harvard University, said the “worst case scenario” would be if a fire at the plant caused a meltdown and resulted in a release of radioactivity that contaminated the surrounding area for years.
But he also said it was more likely that Russian forces were trying to “cut off the electricity supply.
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