Ukrainian nuclear power plant 'could suffer a Fukushima-style meltdown due to power being shut down after it was overrun by Russian troops'
A Ukrainian nuclear power plant could suffer a Fukushima-style meltodown due to the power being shutdown after an attack by Putin's Russian troops during their invasion of Ukraine, experts have warned.
Russian troops had attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe, in the early hours of Friday, with CCTV capturing a fierce gun battle between Putin's men and Ukrainian defenders that sparked a fire in a six-storey training building just outside the main complex. Moscow's men then stopped firefighters getting to the building for several hours. Nuclear experts warned the attacks were 'frightening' but that any disaster caused by fighting would be similar to Fukushima in 2011 rather than Chernobyl in 1986. Fukushima, in Japan, melted down after a tsunami cut electricity to the plant, disabling its cooling system. Chernobyl exploded after a training exercise gone-wrong caused an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
Claire Corkhill, professor of nuclear materials at Sheffield University, told the BBC the reactors at Zaporizhzhia appear to be shutting down to remove the danger of a Fukushima-style meltdown - which may have been Russia's intention in attacking the plant.
Eventually, emergency crews were allowed to go in and douse the flames at the Zaporizhzhia plant before Russian troops moved in an occupied the site, which provides a fifth of Ukraine's electricity. The UN's nuclear monitoring agency said that, fortunately, none of the site's six reactors had been directly damaged and radiation levels remained normal. Three Ukrainian troops were killed defending the complex, Kyiv said.
'These statements are simply untrue,' Vassily Nebenzia, the Moscow ambassador to the UN, told the UN Security Council on Friday. 'This is all part of an unprecedented campaign of lies and disinformation against Russia.'
He said Russian troops had exchanged small arms fire with Ukrainian forces at Europe's largest atomic power plant in Zaporizhzhia but had not shelled the facility.
Ukraine is home to three other active nuclear power plants, one of which is located 70 miles from the city of Mykolaiv which Russian forces have begun attacking after seizing nearby Kherson. The other two active sites are located in the west and are not currently under threat, though that situation could change as the Russian attack branches out. Ukraine also has five sites which are out of action, including Chernobyl, but could still pose a risk if hit by shells.
President Zelensky said the attack on Zaporizhzhia could have caused a crisis equivalent to 'six Chernobyls' - referencing the fact that the modern-day plant has six reactors while the Soviet-era disaster affected only one - and called on Russians to end the fighting.
In 2011, a 33ft-high tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 people crashed into Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant.
This led to several meltdowns, allowing harmful radioactive fuel rods and debris to escape from contained areas.
Approaching a decade after the disaster, researchers are still struggling to clean up fuel in the waters of the wasting reactors.
It's estimated plant officials have only located 10 per cent of the waste fuel left behind after the nuclear meltdowns.
And the damaged plant is believed to be leaking small amounts of the radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean, which could be travelling as far as the west coast of the United States.
Authorities are encouraging evacuees to return, but the population in the Fukushima prefecture has more than halved from some two million in the pre-disaster period.
The threat comes as Russia's war against Ukraine is now entering its ninth day and shows no sign of stopping any time soon after talks between the two sides yesterday broke up without agreement, before Vladimir Putin went on TV to declare that he would keep battling for 'total victory' while he spouted propaganda that Russia's forces are not deliberately targeting civilians and that the 'special operation' is proceeding on time with all of its major objectives completed to schedule.Mykolaiv, a city to the west of Kherson which is now under Russian control, came under attack on Friday morning with the mayor saying troops had moved into the outskirts. Mykolaiv is located along the road to Odessa, Ukraine's third-largest city and main port, which is increasingly at risk of coming under siege.
The city of Mariupol, on the other side of the Crimean peninsula, also continues under heavy bombardment as Moscow's men try to bomb it into submission - with the aim seeming to be cutting off Ukrainian access to the Black Sea to deny the government access to lucrative trading routes.
Fighting is also continuing across the north and east, with Ukrainian special forces ambushing and destroying Russian tanks and armoured vehicles at Hostomel - to the west of the city - and Brovary - to the east - late yesterday and this morning. Ukraine also claimed its jets have targeted part of a 40-mile convoy currently stalled outside the city, amid fears it would encircle the capital and bombard it.
Meanwhile Chernihiv, to the north east of Kyiv, and Kharkiv, in Ukraine's east, were braced for more heavy shelling today after days of increasingly indiscriminate attacks including with banned cluster munitions have left dozens of civilians dead. Officials in Chernihiv said this morning that 47 people died in attacks yesterday.
Boris Johnson accused Russia of 'threatening the security of the whole of Europe' after Putin's troops attacked the continent's largest nuclear power plant overnight, sparking a fire that raged for hours before emergency crews were eventually allowed to extinguish it as Russian soldiers seized the complex.
Mr Johnson condemned the attack as 'reckless' after a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky who branded it 'nuclear terrorism'. Jens Stoltenberg, who is in Brussels today to meet with NATO allies, denounced attacks on all civilian infrastructure and said the fire at the plant underlined the need to end Putin's war as soon as possible.
President Putin has been stepping up actions on the home front, intended to head off internal dissent about the war as combat proves fiercer and harder than his generals anticipated, and western sanctions destroy large chunks of the economy.
Russia's rubber-stamp parliament on Friday approved new laws that would see anyone spreading 'fake news' about the invasion jailed for up to 15 years. Putin had previously threatened and shut down radio and TV stations referring to the 'war' or 'invasion' of Ukraine - which Moscow prefers to call a 'special military operation'.
Moscow also admitted to limiting news from outside sources getting into the country, with the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, independent Russian site Meduza and Germany's Deutsche Welle all restricted, while access to Facebook has been blocked.
Putin has also gone after peaceful protesters, with thousands arrested while marching in rallies around the country asking for the conflict to end.
Meanwhile diplomats from NATO, the EU and G7 will hold a series of back-to-back meetings today in order to discuss next steps in the crisis, with discussions expected to focus on reinforcing NATO's eastern flank in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, supporting non-NATO states such as Moldova and Georgia, and calls for more military support to be sent to Ukraine. 
Fire-damaged buildings at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear complex are pictured on Friday morning after coming under attack by Russian forces overnight, leading to international condemnation
A damaged Russian attack truck is seen outside Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (left) and damage to a training building at the plant is seen with fire crews putting it out (right)
A column of Russian tanks, armoured vehicles and support trucks is seen at the Zaporizhzhia plant after it was seized
A projectile (the bright light, bottom left) lands in a car park at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, damaging cars in the area
Russia is continuing to advance in southern Ukraine, with Mariupol under bombardment and Odessa and Mykolaiv under threat. Chernihiv, in the north, and Kharkiv, in the east, continue to come under heavy bombardment. The capital Kyiv is also under threat, though Ukrainian counter-attacks took out some Russian forces early on FridayPresident Zelensky accused Russia on Friday of unleashing 'nuclear terror' after his forces attacked the plant, claiming the Russian leader wanted to repeat the Chernobyl disaster - considered the worst nuclear disaster in history.
'You know the word Chernobyl,' he said in a video posted on Friday morning, calling on Russia to stop its attack on a nuclear power plant 350 miles south of Kyiv.
'No country other than Russia has ever fired on nuclear power units.
'This is the first time in our history. In the history of mankind.
'The terrorist state now resorted to nuclear terror,' he said in the video message.
Zelensky said: 'Europe needs to wake up. The biggest nuclear power plant in Europe is on fire right now.
'Russian tanks are shooting at the nuclear blocks. These are tanks equipped with thermal imagers, so they know what they are aiming at.'
Meanwhile, Moscow's isolation deepened on Friday, with Airbnb becoming the latest company to pull out of the country - following Ikea, BP, Shell, HSBC, Apple and Nike.
'Airbnb is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus,' tweeted the CEO, Brian Chesky.
Intel and Airbnb announced they were pausing business in Russia and Belarus on Thursday, joining a US tech freeze-out of Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The United States and European allies have imposed tough sanctions on Russia over the attack, with major corporations across a range of industries following suit by freezing business in the country.
Apple has halted all product sales in Russia and limited the use of Apple Pay, while Facebook, YouTube and Microsoft have moved to curb the reach of Russian state-linked news outlets.
'Intel condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and we have suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus,' the chipmaker said in a statement.
'Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by this war.'
Airbnb's co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, who has added a Ukrainian flag to his Twitter profile, tweeted that the company 'is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus,' without giving further details.
The vacation-rentals platform also announced on Monday that it would offer free short-term stays for up to 100,000 people fleeing fighting in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive, one million refugees have left the Eastern European country, the United Nations said Thursday.
Airbnb's offer echoes aid extended by the firm last August to people escaping Afghanistan after the Taliban took power.
The California-based company has also faced scrutiny over its presence in China in recent weeks.
Meanwhile NATO foreign ministers were meeting today to discuss their next steps over the war, with Canada's top diplomat Melanie Joly saying that 'all options' - including a no-fly zone over Ukraine - should be discussed.
President Zelensky has been calling for a zone to be established over Ukraine to stop Russian jets from bombing cities, but establishing such a zone would require NATO aircraft and anti-aircraft batteries intervening directly in the fighting in what Moscow is almost-certain to view as a declaration of war.
Joly stressed that she is not in favour of a no-fly zone and said NATO's top priority remains stopping the Ukraine war from spiralling into a world war, but added that 'we want to make sure scenarios are being discussed'.
The Prime Minister of Lithuania, whose country would be on the frontlines if fighting broke out between Russia and NATO, said demands for a no-fly zone are 'irresponsible.'
The shelling of the plant came as the Russian military pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea.
As the invasion entered its second week, another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.
Leading nuclear authorities were worried - but not panicked - about the damage to the power station. The assault, however, led to phone calls between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders. The U.S. Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.
Earlier, nuclear plant spokesman Andriy Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells fell directly on the facility and set fire to one of its six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, he said.
The Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said that measurements taken at 7 a.m. Friday (0500 GMT) showed radiation levels in the region 'remain unchanged and do not endanger the lives and health of the population.'
The mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, announced on his Telegram channel Friday morning that 'the fire at the (nuclear plant) has indeed been extinguished.' His office told The Associated Press that the information came from firefighters who were allowed onto the site overnight.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in 'coming hours' to raise the issue of Russia's attack on the nuclear power plant, according to a statement from his office.
Zelensky said Russia's attack on the power plant amounted to 'nuclear terror' that threatened all of Europe
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tweeted that the Zaporizhzhia plant's reactors were protected by robust containment structures and were being safely shut down.
In an emotional speech in the middle of the night, Zelenskyy said he feared an explosion that would be 'the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe.'
'Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops,' he said. 'Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station.'
But most experts saw nothing to indicate an impending disaster.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the fire had not affected essential equipment and that Ukraine's nuclear regulator reported no change in radiation levels. The American Nuclear Society concurred, saying that the latest radiation levels remained within natural background levels.
'The real threat to Ukrainian lives continues to be the violent invasion and bombing of their country,' the group said in a statement.
Orlov, the mayor of Enerhodar, said Russian shelling stopped a few hours before dawn, and residents of the city of more than 50,000 who had stayed in shelters overnight could return home. The city awoke with no heat, however, because the shelling damaged the city's heating main, he said.
Prior to the shelling, the Ukrainian state atomic energy company reported that a Russian military column was heading toward the nuclear plant. Loud shots and rocket fire were heard late Thursday.
Later, a livestreamed security camera linked from the homepage of the Zaporizhzhia 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.
Then there were what appeared to be muzzle flashes from vehicles, followed by nearly simultaneous explosions in surrounding buildings. Smoke rose into the frame and drifted away.
Vladimir Putin's forces have brought their superior firepower to bear over the past few days, launching hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites around the country and making significant gains in the south.
The Ukrainian military shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft over the
A destroyed Russian tank is seen on the road near Brovary, to the east of Kyiv, after being destroyed on Friday morning+
Ukraine says two tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed in an early-morning attack 
Burning apartment buildings are seen in Mariupol, which has now been under days of heavy shelling by Russian forces
Fire is seen in Mariupol at a residential area after shelling amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Gutted shops are seen in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, which has been under heavy attack by the Russian military
Russia claims to be avoiding civilian areas, but pictures from Mariupol show shops, restaurants and apartments have been hit
School hit during the Russian air raids in Zhytomyr, a city around 80 miles to the west of Kyiv, which was struck this week
Parts of a maternity hospital were damaged in Russian strikes on Zhytomyr, which seemed to have missed a police station
Damage is seen in one of the rooms of a maternity hospital in Zhytomyr after Russian air strikes on the city
A view of damaged building after the shelling is said by Russian forces in Ukraine's second-biggest city of Kharkiv
People walk past the remains of a missile at a bus terminal, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv
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