Status: 04.03.2022 05:39 a.m
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According to Ukrainian sources, Russia has attacked the country’s largest nuclear power plant. As a result of the fighting, a fire broke out on the site. However, according to initial information, radioactive radiation should not have escaped.
After continued attacks on the major cities of Kharkov, Mariupol and Kyiv, the Russian army attacked the country’s power supply overnight. Local authorities reported early in the morning skirmishes with Russian soldiers near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhia – Ukraine gets around a quarter of its energy from there.
“The fire wasn’t in the reactor blocks of the nuclear power plant, but on the site,” Demian von Osten, ARD Moscow
Morning magazine, March 4th, 2022
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Local officials reported bombing raids on the nuclear facility, and the nuclear power plant was being fired upon with heavy artillery. A block of the power plant was hit and there was a fire in the plant, said the spokesman for the nuclear power plant, Andriy Tuz, in a video published on Telegram. Although the reactor that was hit is being renovated and is not in operation, it does contain nuclear fuel. Firefighters could not approach the fire because they would be shot at. “We demand that they (the troops) stop firing heavy weapons,” Tuz said. “There is a real threat to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.”
Probably no leakage of radiation
Apparently, radioactive radiation has not yet escaped from the facility. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Twitter early in the morning that Ukraine’s nuclear supervisory authority had announced that “no change in radiation levels” had been reported at the site of the nuclear power plant. As recently as Thursday, the IAEA expressed grave concern that the fighting could inadvertently damage Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors.
According to US Secretary of Energy Jenniver Granholm, the power plant’s reactors are now safely shut down. “There are no elevated levels of radiation near the facility,” Granholm wrote on Twitter. The reactors are secured by a robust protective cover.
Demand for NATO support
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko called on NATO to intervene. In view of the attack on the nuclear power plant, “not only a professional assessment of the events is required, but real intervention with the toughest measures, including by NATO and the countries that have nuclear weapons,” Halushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for the attacks to stop immediately. “If it explodes, it will be 10 times bigger than Chernobyl! Russians must stop firing immediately,” he wrote on Twitter.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
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Biden warns London wants Security Council meeting
US President Joe Biden also called on Russia to end its military activities in the area around the nuclear power plant. In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Biden asked “about the current status of the fire” at the nuclear facility, the White House said. The Russian army must allow firefighters and rescue workers access to the site, Biden said.
In a first reaction, Great Britain called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The “reckless” behavior of Russian President Vladimir Putin could “directly threaten the security of all of Europe,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office on the night.
Attacks on major Ukrainian cities
Just hours earlier, the Russian army had once again expanded its offensive against major Ukrainian cities. During Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of over a million inhabitants Kharkiv At least 34 civilians were killed in and around the area on Wednesday and Thursday, according to local authorities. 285 people were also injured, including 10 children, according to regional civil protection. The information cannot be independently verified. Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, lies near the border with Russia. It has been the target of Russian attacks since the beginning of the war.
In Kyiv there were several heavy explosions on Thursday night. Air alarm was triggered, as reported by the Unian agency. Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram: “The enemy is trying to break through into the capital.” According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian troops were stationed north and northwest of Kyiv, 20 to 30 kilometers from the city limits, and set up camps. According to international observers, the Russian military convoy is progressing much more slowly than Moscow had planned.
The southern Ukrainian port city Mariupol With around 440,000 inhabitants, according to local authorities, is without water, heating and electricity after air raids. The strategically important city is now apparently surrounded.
Ukrainian nuclear power plant is apparently being fired at with heavy artillery
Mathea Schülke, WDR, Morgenmagazin, March 4th, 2022
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Meanwhile, detailed situation is in southern area capital Cherson not clear. The Ukrainian army has apparently abandoned the city. “We have no Ukrainian armed forces in the city, only peaceful residents who want to live here!” Mayor Ihor Kolychayev wrote on the night. Russian occupiers are in all parts of the southern port city of Cherson, the local authorities said. Kherson would be the first major Ukrainian city under new Russian control.
33 dead in Russian airstrike on Chernihiv
In a Russian attack on residential areas in the city Chernihiv According to Ukrainian sources, 33 people were killed in northern Ukraine. The city’s emergency services said 18 other people were injured. There had previously been talk of 22 fatalities. According to the information, two schools and a high-rise apartment building were hit in the attack.
The deputy mayor of Chernihiv, Regina Gusak, told the AFP news agency that Chernihiv, 120 kilometers from Kyiv, had become the target of a Russian “bombing raid”. Governor Vyacheslav Tschaus had previously spoken of a Russian airstrike in which two schools in the Staraya Podusivka district and residential buildings were hit. Chernihiv and the region of the same name are located northeast of the capital Kyiv
OSCE wants to investigate possible war crimes
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) announced on Thursday that a group of international experts would be commissioned to “investigate facts and circumstances surrounding possible war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Ukraine. According to the United Nations, 249 civilians were killed and 553 injured in the first week of the conflict. Ukraine spoke of more than 2,000 civilians killed on Wednesday.
Ukraine war – concern for nuclear power plants
Palina Milling, WDR, 4.3.2022 · 06:44
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