On Sunday, a fire broke out in the cooling tower of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for the incident.
Both sides said that no increase in radiation levels had been detected around the nuclear power plant, which had been under their control since the first days of the Russian armed forces’ full-scale military offensive.
“As a result of the shelling of the city of Energodar by the Ukrainian armed forces, a fire occurred in the cooling system of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, said on Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post that “Russian occupiers had set fire to the facility.”
“Currently, radiation levels are within the normal range,” he added.
Balitsky also reported that the radiation environment around the facility was normal.
The Ukrainian Interior Minister said the situation was being monitored “intensively” from weather stations near the power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
All six plants are currently in cold shutdown, Balitsky said.
“There is no danger of a steam explosion or other consequences,” he said, adding that firefighters were on site fighting the fire.
A video released by Zelensky showed black smoke rising from one of the power plant’s cooling towers and red flames licking at the ground.
The site is located on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River – a de facto front line that winds through southern Ukraine.
Ukraine controls the opposite bank and Russia has repeatedly accused its forces of deliberately targeting the power plant – Ukraine denies these allegations.
Kiev, in turn, accused Moscow of militarizing the facility, including by stationing heavy weapons there at the beginning of the conflict.
Russia’s control over the power plant is a form of nuclear “blackmail”, it is said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has staff stationed there, has repeatedly called for restraint. It fears that reckless military action could trigger a serious nuclear accident at the plant.
