Fire at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant a threat to world security: Ukraine official
A fire has broken out at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, located in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, following an attack by Russian forces, Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Dmytro Kuleba warned that if the Zaporizhzhia plant blows up, the resulting disaster would be 10 times larger than the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe of 1986.
He said Russian military forces must call a ceasefire immediately to allow firefighters to establish a security zone around the plant.
The BBC reported that the mayor of Enerhodar, which is located close to the nuclear plant, said that fighting had ceased in the area on Friday.
Fire reportedly broke out on the third, fourth and fifth floors of a building at the plant after it was bombarded by heavy artillery for several hours.
“As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire,” Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov said via the Telegram app just after 1.30am local time, adding the incident was a threat to world security.
