Russian Military seizes Europe’s largest nuclear plant site

Kyiv, Mar 04: The Russian Military has seized Europe's largest nuclear plant site Zaporizhzhia today.

This comes just hours after Russia's forces pressed their attack on the plant and sparked a fire.

The fire was however extinguished later. The assault on the eastern city of Enerhodar and its Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant came as the military action entered its second week with Russian forces gaining ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea. Elsewhere, another round of talks between the two sides yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors inside Ukraine to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.

Nuclear plant spokesman Andriy Tuz had told Ukrainian television that shells were falling directly on the facility and had set fire to one of its six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, but there is nuclear fuel inside, he said.

The American Nuclear Society condemned the attack but said 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 from President Steven Nesbit and Executive Director and CEO Craig Piercy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was in contact with authorities in Ukraine. The agency's director general, Mariano Grossi, urged military forces to refrain from violence near the plant.

The mayor of Enerhodar said earlier that Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the city's outskirts. Video showed flames and black smoke rising above the city of more than 50,000, with people streaming past wrecked cars, just a day after the U.N. atomic watchdog agency expressed grave concern that the fighting could cause accidental damage to Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors.

While the huge Russian armoured column threatening Kyiv appeared bogged down outside the capital, 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.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal called on the West to close the skies over the country's nuclear plants as fighting intensified. "It is a question of the security of the whole world!" he said in a statement.

The U.S. and NATO allies have ruled out creating a no-fly zone since the move would pit Russian and Western military forces against each other.

Heavy fighting continued on the outskirts of another strategic port, Mariupol, on the Azov Sea. The battles have knocked out the city's electricity, heat and water systems, as well as most phone service, officials said. Food deliveries to the city were also cut.