A screen grab from a video released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows a fire broke in Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on August 11, 2024. A fire broke out Sunday in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, located in southern Ukraine, with Ukraine and Russia trading blame over the incident.
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Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for a large fire that broke out at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine on Sunday, with the latest incident taking place amid Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Russian border territory.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces started the fire at the plant, which has been occupied since March 2022, while the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia said Ukrainian shelling was the cause of the blaze.
The occupied nuclear power plant has been a frequent flashpoint between Ukraine and Russia, which have repeatedly accused each other of launching high-risk drone and shelling attacks on or near the plant, endangering the facility’s safety and risking a nuclear disaster.
In the latest flaring of tensions, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of starting a fire at the ZNPP in the town of Enerhodar, but said that local radiation levels were normal.
“As long as Russian terrorists retain control of the nuclear power plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal. Since the first day of the seizure of Zaporizhzhya NPP, Russia has been using it solely to blackmail Ukraine, the whole of Europe and the world,” Zelenskyy said.
A view of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on June 15, 2023.
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The Russian-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia countered the claim, stating in a Google-translated social media update that Ukrainian shelling was to blame for the fire at the facility, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Posting on Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky said an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) struck one of the cooling towers of the plant and caught fire, adding that emergency services in the region had localized and extinguished the flames.
“The Ukrainian regime, supported by NATO curators, is systematically shelling the entire north of the Zaporizhia region, where UAVs, barrel artillery, and mortar artillery can reach. But all measures are being taken to localize the consequences of these strikes,” Balitsky claimed.
He said he had met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin who had “clearly indicated increasing vigilance and attention to strategic infrastructure facilities, which include the nuclear power plant.”
Neither side presented evidence for their claims. CNBC was not able to verify their reports.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are seen at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on June 15, 2023.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has…
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