Russia has now captured the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, Fox News reports.
Reports emerged on Thursday indicating that Russian troops were shelling the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which is located in Enerhodar, Ukraine. It is home to six of Ukraine’s 15 operating nuclear reactors.
There have been videos circulating the internet showing artillery striking right near the facility. There have also been reports of gunfire being exchanged in the area. This has raised concerns about another Chernoble-like disaster taking place.
Accordingly, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called “for an immediate halt to the use of force at Enerhodar.”
A close call
Despite the warning from the IAEA, however, Russia continued to try to capture the nuclear facility on Friday, in the process, setting off a fire at Zaporizhzhia. The good news is that the fire was able to be extinguished before a nuclear disaster was able to occur. Radiation levels have not changed.
The bad news, however, is that Zaporizhzhia is now in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Now, a Zaporizhzhia employee has revealed that Russian troops are going to try to “to mine the nuclear power plant and blackmail the whole of Europe.”
The Russians, according to reports, are placing explosives near the nuclear facility, and they will use those explosives to put pressure on the Ukrainians and their allies.
Nuclear terrorism
The U.S. embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, put out a statement on Friday accusing the Russians of committing a war crime with its attack on the nuclear power plant.
“It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant,” the embassy said. “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Putin of nuclear terrorism, saying, “for the first time ever in our history, in the history of humankind, the terrorist country has reverted to nuclear terror.” Zelensky added, “Russian propaganda had warned in the past to cover the world in nuclear ash. Now, this isn’t just a warning, this is real.”
The IAEA is now trying to take steps to make sure that no further fighting occurs in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant.
