KYIV, UKRAINE --
Russian troops Friday seized the most important nuclear energy plant in Europe after a middle-of-the-night assault that set it on hearth and briefly raised worldwide fears of a disaster in probably the most chilling flip but in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Firefighters put out the blaze, and no radiation was launched, UN and Ukrainian officers stated, as Russian forces pressed on with their week-old offensive on a number of fronts and the variety of refugees fleeing the nation eclipsed 1.2 million.
With world condemnation mounting, the Kremlin cracked down on the circulate of knowledge at house, blocking Fb, Twitter, the BBC and the U.S. government-funded Voice of America. And President Vladimir Putin signed a legislation making it a criminal offense punishable by as much as 15 years in jail to unfold so-called pretend information, together with something that goes in opposition to the official authorities line on the warfare.
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Whereas the huge Russian armored column threatening Kyiv remained stalled exterior the capital, Putin's army has launched lots of of missiles and artillery assaults on cities and different websites across the nation, and made important features on the bottom within the south in an obvious bid to chop off Ukraine's entry to the ocean.
Within the atttack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant within the southeastern metropolis of Enerhodar, the chief of the UN's Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, Rafael Mariano Grossi, stated a Russian "projectile" hit a coaching heart, not any of the six reactors.
The assault triggered international alarm and concern of a disaster that might dwarf the world's worst nuclear catastrophe, at Ukraine's Chernobyl in 1986. In an emotional nighttime speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated he feared an explosion that might be "the top for everybody. The top for Europe. The evacuation of Europe."
However nuclear officers from Sweden to China stated no radiation spikes had been reported, as did Grossi.
Authorities stated that Russian troops had taken management of the general web site however that the plant employees continued to run it. Just one reactor was working, operating at 60% of capability, Grossi stated within the aftermath of the assault.
Two folks had been injured within the hearth, Grossi stated. Ukraine's state nuclear plant operator Enerhoatom stated three Ukrainian troopers had been killed and two wounded.
Within the U.S., Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stated the episode "underscores the recklessness with which the Russians have been perpetrating this unprovoked invasion." At an emergency assembly of the UN Safety Council, Ukraine's UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, stated the hearth broke out on account of Russian shelling of the plant and accused Moscow of committing "an act of nuclear terrorism."
With out producing proof, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that a Ukrainian "sabotage group" had set the hearth at Zaporozhizhia.
The disaster unfolded after Grossi earlier within the week expressed grave concern that the combating might trigger unintended harm to Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors at 4 crops across the nation.
Atomic security consultants stated a warfare fought amid nuclear reactors represents an unprecedented and extremely harmful scenario.
"These crops at the moment are in a scenario that few folks ever significantly contemplated once they had been initially constructed," stated Edwin Lyman of the Union of Involved Scientists in Washington. "No nuclear plant has been designed to face up to a possible menace of a full-scale army assault."
Dr. Alex Rosen of Worldwide Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Warfare stated the incident was most likely the results of army items overestimating the precision of their weapons, on condition that the prevailing winds would have carried any radioactive fallout straight towards Russia.
"Russia can not have any curiosity in contaminating its personal territory," he stated. He stated the hazard comes not simply from the reactors however from the chance of enemy hearth hitting storage services that maintain spent gasoline rods.
Within the wake of the assault, Zelensky appealed once more to the West to implement a no-fly zone over his nation. However NATO Secretary-Basic Jens Stoltenberg dominated out that chance, citing the chance of a a lot wider warfare in Europe. He stated that to implement a no-fly zone, NATO planes must shoot down Russian plane.
"We perceive the desperation, however we additionally imagine that if we did that, we might find yourself with one thing that might finish in a full-fledged warfare in Europe," Stoltenberg stated.
The plant hearth was the second time because the invasion started that considerations a few potential nuclear accident arose, following a battle on the closely contaminated web site of the now-decommissioned Chernobyl plant.
Russian forces, in the meantime, pressed their offensive within the southern a part of the nation. Severing Ukraine's entry to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov would deal a extreme blow to its economic system and will worsen an already dire humanitarian scenario.
A spherical of talks between Russia and Ukraine yielded a tentative settlement Thursday to arrange secure corridors to evacuate residents and ship meals and medication. However the mandatory particulars nonetheless needed to be labored out.
The UN human rights workplace stated 331 civilians had been confirmed killed within the invasion however that the true quantity might be a lot increased.
In Romania, one newly arrived refugee, Anton Kostyuchyk, struggled to carry again tears as he recounted leaving all the pieces behind in Kyiv and sleeping in church buildings along with his spouse and three kids throughout their journey out.
"I am leaving my house, my nation. I used to be born there, and I lived there," he stated. "And what now?"
Showing on video in a message to antiwar protesters in a number of European cities, Zelensky continued to enchantment for assist.
"If we fall, you'll fall," he stated. "And if we win, and I am certain we'll win, this would be the victory of the entire democratic world. This would be the victory of our freedom. This would be the victory of sunshine over darkness, of freedom over slavery."
Inside Ukraine, frequent shelling might be heard within the heart of Kyiv, although extra distant than in latest days, with loud thudding each 10 minutes resonating over the rooftops.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich stated battles involving airstrikes and artillery continued northwest of Kyiv, and the northeastern cities of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka got here beneath heavy hearth.
He stated Ukrainian forces had been nonetheless holding the northern metropolis of Chernihiv and had prevented Russian efforts to take the vital southern metropolis of Mykolaiv. Ukrainian artillery additionally defended Odessa from repeated makes an attempt by Russian ships to fireside on the Black Sea port, Arestovic stated. Odessa is Ukraine's largest port metropolis and residential to a big naval base.
The Ukrainian Navy scuttled its flagship on the shipyard the place it was present process repairs to maintain the frigate from being seized by the Russians, authorities stated.
One other strategic port, Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, was "partially beneath siege," and Ukrainian forces had been pushing again efforts to encompass town, Arestovich stated. The combating has knocked out town's electrical energy, warmth and water programs, in addition to most telephone service, officers stated.
"The humanitarian scenario is tense," he stated.
Amid the warfare, there have been occasional indicators of hope.
As explosions sounded on the fringes of Kyiv, Dmytro Shybalov and Anna Panasyk smiled and blushed on the civil registry workplace the place they married Friday. They fell in love in 2015 in Donetsk amid the combating between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces that was a precursor to the countrywide warfare.
"It is 2022 and the scenario hasn't modified," Shybalov stated. "It is scary to assume what's going to occur when our youngsters will probably be born."
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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Chernov reported from Mariupol, Ukraine. Sergei Grits in Odesa, Ukraine; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Matt Sedensky in New York; Robert Burns in Washington; and different AP journalists from all over the world contributed to this report.
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