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Ukraine and Russia have blamed one another after a hearth broke out on the large Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant on Sunday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stated Russian forces had began a hearth on the plant, which has been occupied by Moscow’s forces for greater than two years. Zaporizhzhia’s Kremlin-installed governor stated Ukrainian shelling brought on the blaze.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog stated it noticed “strong dark smoke” coming from the ability – however stated there was “no impact reported” for nuclear security.
The improvement comes as Ukrainian troops have superior as much as 30km inside Russia, within the deepest and most important incursion since Moscow started its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On Sunday, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, stated a hearth had damaged out on the cooling towers of the facility plant.
He blamed Ukrainian shelling, however requested for “calm”, including that there had been no radiation spike across the plant.
Mr Zelensky additionally stated there was no detected radiation spike or hazard of a nuclear leak – however accused Russia of purposefully beginning the fireplace in an try to “blackmail” Kyiv.
In the early hours of Monday, Vladimir Rogov, one other Kremlin-installed official, stated the fireplace had been “completely extinguished” in a Telegram publish.
The nuclear energy plant has been underneath the management of Russian troops and officers since 2022. It has not produced energy in additional than two years and all six reactors have been in chilly shutdown since April.
In an announcement posted on X, UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated its specialists had witnessed “strong dark smoke” coming from the plant following “multiple explosions”.
It stated the plant had reported “an alleged drone attack” on one of many cooling towers on the web site.
“No impact has been reported for nuclear safety,” the IAEA added.
In a later assertion, the IAEA stated it had requested “immediate access to the cooling tower to assess the damage”.
The fireplace comes only a day after President Zelensky acknowledged for the primary time that his army is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia’s western Kursk area.
In his nightly video handle on Saturday, Mr Zelensky stated Ukraine’s army was pushing the battle onto “the aggressor’s territory”.
A senior Ukrainian official advised the AFP information company that 1000’s of troops had been engaged within the operation, excess of initially reported by Russian border guards.
Kyiv launched its shock assault on Tuesday, quickly advancing greater than 30km (19 miles) inside Russia – the deepest raid since Moscow started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia has to this point struggled to halt the Ukrainian advance, with greater than 76,000 folks evacuated from the Kursk area, the place a state of emergency has been declared by native authorities.
Emergency trains from Kursk to Moscow have additionally been arrange by Russia’s rail operator for these trying to flee.
The preventing seemed to be ongoing over the weekend, with Kursk Governor Aleksei Smirnov saying early on Sunday that there have been injured folks in a “treacherous” Ukrainian assault.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated the offensive was a “major provocation”.
