Following night-long clashes near the city of Zaporizhzhya in southeastern Ukraine, Russia took control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukrainian authorities announced on Friday.
“Currently, the site of the Zaporizhzhia NPP is occupied by the military forces of the Russian Federation,” said a statement by the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate.
It stressed that there had been no changes in radiation level, which increased after a fire broke out due to Russian shelling.
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that attacks by Russian troops on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant must be stopped and that if an explosion occurred, “it would be the end of Europe.”
Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the European Union, US, and UK, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.
More than a million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Source Anadolu Agency