No damage was done to nuclear reactors at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, said the U.N. atomic chief Rafael Grossi.
Two members of security staff were injured when a projectile hit overnight after officials reported fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces at the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, early on Friday morning.
“What we understand is that this projectile is a projectile that is coming from the Russian forces. We do not have details about the kind of projectile,” Grossi told news outlets later Friday. The plant’s radiation monitoring system is still functional.
Russian officials, through state-run outlet RT, alleged that Ukrainian forces early Friday attempted to provoke Russian troops by firing at them and forcing them to retaliate.
“Last night, an attempt to carry out a horrible provocation was made by Kyiv’s nationalist regime on the area surrounding the station,” Ministry of Defense spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov announced Friday, while claiming that alleged Ukrainian saboteurs attacked Russian troops patrolling the area around the plant.
Neither claim could be independently verified.
Should the nuclear plant go into meltdown mode, it could potentially release radiation across Ukraine and Eastern Europe, including Russia. Some analysts noted that in that region, the winds generally blow to the south and east—meaning that Russian cities and towns would be greatly impacted by the radiation.
On Friday, Zelensky again said that because of the nuclear plant fire, NATO should establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Later, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg rejected Zelensky’s demand and said enforcing such a rule would lead to an escalation between NATO allies and Russia.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine called the Russian assault on the Zaporizhzhia plant a “war crime.” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said it showed how reckless the Russian invasion has been.
“It just raises the level of potential catastrophe to a level that nobody wants to see,” he told CNN on Friday morning.
Video footage uploaded online showed one building aflame and a volley of incoming shells before a large incandescent ball lit up the sky, exploding beside a car park and sending smoke billowing across the compound. It’s not clear who fired the shells.
The mayor of Energodar, located near the plant, previously told news outlets that the fire was caused by Russian shelling of the plant, adding that the fire engulfed the power plant itself. Emergency services later dismissed the allegation in local reports.
