Russian troops Friday seized the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe after a middle-of-the-night attack that set it on fire and briefly raised worldwide fears of a catastrophe in the most chilling turn in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine yet.Firefighters put out the blaze, and no radiation was released, U.N. and Ukrainian officials said, as Russian forces pressed on with their week-old offensive on multiple fronts and the number of refugees fleeing the country topped 1.2 million.
While the vast Russian armored column threatening Kyiv remained stalled outside the capital, President Vladimir Putin’s military has launched hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites around the country, and made significant gains on the ground in the south in an apparent bid to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea.In the atttack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, the chief of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center, not any of its six reactors.The attack triggered global alarm and fear of a catastrophe that could dwarf the world’s worst nuclear disaster, at Ukraine’s Chernobyl in 1986. In an emotional nighttime speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he feared an explosion that would be “the end for everyone. The end for Europe.
The evacuation of Europe. ”United States United Nations ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the world “narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night” following the fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.She called Russia’s reactions “reckless” and “dangerous” saying it put the largest nuclear power plant at grave risk and it threatened the safety of civilians in Russia and across Europe.Meanwhile, Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that the nuclear plant is fully operational and there is no threat of a release of radioactive material. /Argumentum.al
