(ENERHODAR, Ukraine) — Russian troops are shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station in Ukraine.
“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram. “There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe.”
The plant accounts for about one quarter of Ukraine’s power generation.
Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells were falling directly on the Zaporizhzhia plant and had set fire to one of the facility’s six reactors. The reactor was under renovation but isn’t operational. However, the inside contains nuclear fuel, he stated.
Tuz explained that firefighters can’t go near the fire as they are being shot at.
A live-streamed security camera linked from the homepage of the nuclear power plant showed what appeared to be armored vehicles rolling into the facility’s parking lot and shining spotlights on the building where the camera was mounted. The flashes appear to come from bright muzzle flashes and almost simultaneous explosions of the buildings around them. As the smoke rises, it drifts over the frame.
