Russian troops capture Europe's biggest nuclear plant after potentially disastrous fire

dailystar.co.uk:

Russian troops have captured Europe's biggest nuclear plant in Ukraine after a night of shelling which almost had apocalyptic consequences.A fire raged at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after Russian shelling struck one of the facility's power units.That fire, which Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba warned could create a blast "10 times larger than Chernobyl" has now been extinguished.Ukraine's State Inspectorate of Nuclear Regulation have now confirmed that the site is occupied by invading forces.

Michael Horowitz, a security analyst and Head of Intel at Le Beck International, shared an update from Ukrainian officials on Twitter.

It stated: "Currently, the site of the Zaporizhzhia NPP is occupied by the military forces of the Russian Federation. "Operation personnel monitors the state of the power units and ensures their operation in accordance with the requirements of process procedures for safe operation."The update also confirmed that the earlier fire was a direct result of Russian shelling, and that "at present, there is no information on the dead and injured".For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.Thankfully, "no changes in the radiation situation have been registered".

The post also gave a situation report on the state of the site's six nuclear power units. Unit 1 is in outage, 2 and 3 have been disconnected, 4 is still in operation and 5 and 6 are being cooled down.Local politicians previously said that firefighters were not able to get close to the scene due to being shot at.A team of 40 people and 10 units have now reportedly extinguished the blaze.