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Ukraine and Russia are trading accusations after a fire at the giant Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops set fire to the factory, which has been occupied by Moscow’s troops for more than two years. The Kremlin-appointed governor of Zaporizhia region said Ukrainian shelling was the cause of the fire.
The UN nuclear watchdog said it saw “strong black smoke” coming from the facility but said there was “no impact” on nuclear safety.
Ukrainian troops have now advanced 30 kilometers into Russian territory, the deepest and most significant incursion since Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On Sunday, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Zaporizhia Oblast, said a fire had broken out in a cooling tower at the power plant.
He blamed Ukrainian shelling but called for “calm”, adding that radiation levels around the plant had not spiked.
Zelensky also said no radiation spike or danger of a nuclear leak had been detected, but accused Russia of deliberately setting the fires in an attempt to “blackmail” Kiev.
Another Kremlin appointee, Vladimir Rogov, said in a Telegram post early Monday that the fire had been “completely extinguished.”
The nuclear power plant has been under the control of Russian troops and officials since 2022. The plant has not produced electricity for more than two years, and all six reactors have been in cold shutdown since April.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, said in a statement released on X that its experts witnessed “intense black smoke” coming out of the plant following “multiple explosions”.
The report said the factory reported that a cooling tower on site was “suspected to have been attacked by a drone.”
The IAEA added: “No impact on nuclear safety has been reported so far.”
The IAEA said in a subsequent statement that it had requested “immediate access to the cooling tower to assess the damage.”
The day before the fire President Zelensky acknowledged for the first time His troops are launching a cross-border offensive in Russia’s western Kursk region.
In a video address late Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were pushing the war into the “territory of the aggressor.”
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that thousands of troops were involved in the operation, far more than initially reported by Russian border guards.
Kyiv launched a surprise attack on Tuesday, quickly More than 30 kilometers ahead (19 miles) inside Russia — the deepest strike since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia, which has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian army advance, has evacuated more than 76,000 people from the Kursk region, where the government has declared a state of emergency.
Russian railway operators have also arranged emergency trains from Kursk to Moscow for those who want to flee.
The fighting appeared to have continued over the weekend, with Kursk Oblast Governor Alexei Smirnov saying early Sunday that Ukraine had launched a “dangerous” attack that had caused casualties.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the offensive a “major provocation.”
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
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