{"id":1010749,"date":"2022-03-04T16:12:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T16:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/03\/04\/russia-has-taken-control-of-a-nuclear-power-station-in-ukraine-world-leaders-worried\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T16:12:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T16:12:42","slug":"russia-has-taken-control-of-a-nuclear-power-station-in-ukraine-world-leaders-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/03\/04\/russia-has-taken-control-of-a-nuclear-power-station-in-ukraine-world-leaders-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia has taken control of a nuclear power station in Ukraine; World leaders worried"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"447\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image_2022-03-04_034115-696x447.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant appears to be on fire following shelling.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant appears to be on fire following shelling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Russia has taken control of a nuclear power station in Ukraine after it was hit by shelling.<\/p>\n<p>A fire broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant \u2013 the largest in Europe \u2013 and Ukraine said it was shelled by Russian troops.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say the facility is now safe and radiation levels are normal.<\/p>\n<p>World leaders have accused Russia of endangering the safety of an entire continent, and Ukraine\u2019s president accused Russia of \u201cnuclear terror\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>US President Joe Biden urged Moscow to stop its military activities around the site, while Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the \u201chorrific attacks\u201d from Russia \u201cmust cease immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the \u201creckless\u201d attack could \u201cdirectly threaten the safety of all of Europe\u201d. All three leaders spoke to Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Zelensky, meanwhile, said Russia wanted a repeat of Chernobyl, the site of the world\u2019s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there is an explosion, it is the end of everything. The end of Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A video feed from the nuclear plant showed blasts lighting up the night sky and sending up plumes of smoke.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/av-embeds\/60613438\/vpid\/p0bsgjt5\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Buildings around one of the plant\u2019s six power units have been damaged without affecting its safety, according to Ukraine\u2019s nuclear inspectorate.<\/p>\n<p>Workers at the plant said the fire \u2013 which has since been extinguished \u2013 broke out at a training building outside the plant\u2019s perimeter, and that only one of the plant\u2019s six reactors were operational.<\/p>\n<p>One resident who lives nearby said he saw the Russian military attacking the site. \u201cIt is just terrorism\u2026 It is worrying not just for our region, but for Ukraine and for the world,\u201d Kirill Dovzhik told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>The UN\u2019s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the fire had not affected the plant\u2019s \u201cessential\u201d equipment and there was no increase in radiation levels.<\/p>\n<p>But the IAEA said it was in \u201cfull 24\/7 response mode\u201d due to the \u201cserious situation\u201d at the power station.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian emergency services said they were initially blocked from getting to the scene of the blaze, prompting President Biden to publicly call on Russia to allow firefighters into the site.<\/p>\n<p>Boris Johnson said he would seek an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday over the attack.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/_123508819_ukraine_nuclear_power_plants_640-2x-nc.png\" alt=\"Map of nuclear power stations in Ukraine\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Experts said attacking a nuclear plant was unprecedented, and the situation was still very dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Graham Allison, a nuclear security expert at Harvard University, said the \u201cworst case\u201d would be if a fire at the plant caused a meltdown and prompted a release of radioactivity that contaminated the surrounding area for years.<\/p>\n<p>But he also said it was more likely Russian forces were trying to \u201cclose down the supply of electricity to the surrounding area\u201d, rather than attack the plant.<\/p>\n<p>The plant, located around 550km (342 miles) south-east of the capital Kyiv, generates almost a quarter of all electricity in Ukraine. It lies on the river Dnieper, north-east of the city of Kherson which is said to have been occupied by Russian forces.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian military has also\u00a0seized control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.<\/p>\n<p>News of the latest incident at Zaporizhzhia caused\u00a0share prices in Asia to fall sharply.<\/p>\n<p>In other developments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the port city of\u00a0<strong>Mariupol<\/strong>\u00a0in southern Ukraine,\u00a0residents are without power and water supplies\u00a0because of relentless Russian shelling<\/li>\n<li>In the north, the cities of\u00a0<strong>Chernihiv<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Kharkiv<\/strong>\u00a0have again come under fire, while there are reports that the city of Sumy has been surrounded by Russian troops<\/li>\n<li>A second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine agreed to provide humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from conflict zones<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More than one million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began last week.<\/p>\n<p>Despite punishing international sanctions, Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin said his offensive was going \u201cstrictly according to schedule, according to plan\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He has\u00a0put his nuclear forces on high alert\u00a0because of \u201caggressive statements\u201d by the West.<\/p>\n<p>Western ministers will hold crisis talks in Brussels on Friday as they seek to show their support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>UK Foreign Secretary\u00a0Liz Truss called it \u201cone of the biggest days of diplomacy\u201d\u00a0with allies prepared to \u201ctighten the vice around Putin\u2019s war machine\u201d by targeting the Russian economy with more sanctions.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/_123506158_ukraine_russian_control_areas_map_03_03_map_x2640-nc.png\" alt=\"Map showing areas of Ukraine that are under Russian control\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"xfq7bObn7fs\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vocational School study under deplorable conditions - Premtobre Kasee on Adom TV (4-3-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xfq7bObn7fs?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant appears to be on fire following shelling. Russia has taken control of a nuclear power station in Ukraine after it was hit by shelling. A fire broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant \u2013 the largest in Europe \u2013 and Ukraine said it was shelled by Russian troops. Authorities say the facility [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1010750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}