Fire at Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

The fire was extinguished, but one of the cooling towers at the nuclear power plant was damaged, Ukrainian and Russian authorities said.

Photo: Volodymyr Zelensky/Telegram

Russian Atomic Energy Agency The “main fire” at a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been extinguished, Rosatom reported late Sunday, Reuters reported.

In addition, both Rosatom and the Ukrainian state-owned energy company said: energy atom This is one of Cooling towers Reuters wrote.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier on Sunday evening that Russian forces had set fire to the occupied nuclear power plant, and that it was visible from Kyiv-controlled territory.

He shared a video of the fire on the Telegram messaging service and said radiation indicators were normal.

– But as long as Russian terrorists control the nuclear power plant, the situation is not normal, and cannot be so, writes X.

Photo: Kerry Lynn/VG

Zelensky believes Russia has used the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to blackmail Ukraine and the rest of the world.

– We are waiting for the world's reaction, we are waiting for the IAEA's reaction. Russia must bear responsibility for this, Zelensky wrote on X.

A local official in the Ukrainian city of Nikopol said there were unofficial reports that Russian forces had set fire to a large number of car tires in cooling towers. He urged residents to remain calm.

The Russian administration confirmed that the fire started near the cooling towers.

In turn, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian official in the Zaporizhia region, accused Ukraine of causing the fire due to attacks on the nearby town of Enerhodar.

They claimed that the fire had no effect on the nuclear power plant and that its use was safe, Reuters wrote.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says there have been no reports of safety concerns. Its experts earlier reported seeing thick dark smoke rising from the northern area of ​​the nuclear power plant.

This video is supposed to show the Russian attack on the nuclear power plant in September 2022:

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