A fire broke out in a cooling tower at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine on Sunday, leading Kiev and Moscow to blame each other for the accident.
Both sides said no spike in radiation levels had been detected around the plant, which has been under Russian military control since the start of the full-scale military offensive.
“As a result of Ukrainian armed forces' shelling of the city of Enerkhodhar, a fire broke out in the cooling system of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of Ukraine's Zaporizhia region, said in Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post that “Russian occupation forces started a fire” at the plant.
“Currently, radiation levels are within normal limits,” he added.
Balitsky also reported that the “radiological environment” around the facility was normal.
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Ukraine's interior minister said the situation was being “intensively monitored” from a weather station near the plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant.
All six of the plant's units are currently in cold shutdown, Balitsky said.
“There is no risk of a steam explosion or any other impact,” he said, adding that firefighters were at the scene battling the blaze.
A video released by President Zelenskiy showed black smoke pouring from one of the plant's cooling towers, with red flames spreading beneath it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: Presidential Administration of Ukraine/dpa
The site is on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, a de facto front line that snakes through southern Ukraine.
The opposite bank is controlled by Ukraine, and Russia has repeatedly accused its forces of deliberately shelling the nuclear plant, which Ukraine denies.
Kiev, meanwhile, has accused Moscow of militarising the facilities, including stationing heavy weaponry there, at the start of the conflict.
They claim that Russian control of the nuclear plant is a form of nuclear “blackmail”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has staff based in the area, has repeatedly urged restraint, saying reckless military action could lead to a major nuclear accident at the plant.
