Russian forces ‘set fire to Europe’s biggest nuclear plant’, warns Zelensky as fighting rages on in Kursk

THICK black smoke is billowing from the Ukrainian nuclear power plant occupied by Russia.

Smoke can be seen coming out of one of the cooling towers raising the spectre of a nuclear disaster.

Getty

Smoke could be seen billowing from a cooling tower at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant[/caption]

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country has been a flashpoint, posing the risk of a nuclear disaster during Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The Russian-installed regional governor of Zaporizhzhia, Yevgeny Balitsky, said that it had been caused by a Ukrainian drone strike.

Ukraine believes that cause is a lie, with one commander saying that Russian forces had set fire to “a large number of automobile tires in cooling towers,” the Kyiv Independent reported.

He said: “Six units in the power plant are in cold shutdown, there is no explosion or other danger.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky shot back saying that Russia used the plant to blackmail the world.

He said: “Currently, radiation levels are within norm.

“However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal.”

“Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world.”

Inspectors inside have previously warned that the site is spiralling towards catastrophe.

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