Ukraine War: Shelling of Nuclear Plant Spread Scare, Putin Condemned
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 4: Even as Russia failed to make much of a headway into Ukraine on the eighth day of its invasion into the neighbouring country and asked other neighbours “not to escalate tension,” the president Vladimir Putin received condemnation from the European countries for threatening their lives by causing fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine.
The fire started at the Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant had been put off, there was no additional radiation threat from the power plant and the staff there were continuing to operate the reactor and supply power according to normal safety rules, official sources said and added Putin could not be pardoned for the scare the fire created among the people in the European countries fearing radiation leakage.
Russia’s defence ministry quickly blamed the alleged “Ukrainian saboteurs” for the attack and shelling of the nuclear power plant calling it a “monstrous provocation.” Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces have taken control of the site. Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said that no changes in radiation levels have been recorded so far. It said staff are studying the site to check for other damage.
The Zaporizhzhia power plant had caught fire as it came under shelling from Russian forces. Though the fire was later extinguished, the incident sparked concern that radiation could leak from the damaged power station. The head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said there has been no release of radiation at the Ukrainian nuclear plant that was targeted. International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi said the agency had been in contact with the Ukrainian nuclear regulator and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after a building on the site was hit that caused a fire that was extinguished. Grossi said two people on the site were injured in the fire. He said the operator and the regulator say the situation “continues to be extremely tense and challenging.” The Ukrainian state nuclear company said three Ukrainian troops were killed and two wounded in the Russian attack at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Ukrainian firefighters on Friday extinguished a blaze at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant that was ignited by a Russian attack and no radiation was released, U.N. and Ukrainian officials said, as Russian forces pressed their campaign to cripple the country despite global condemnation.
The head of the United Nations’ atomic agency said that a Russian “projectile” hit a training centre at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Ukrainian officials have said Russian troops took control of the overall site, but the plant’s staff are continuing to ensure its operations.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to “repeat” the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and said he had spoken with international leaders including US President Joe Biden about the crisis at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Images on a live feed from the site earlier showed blasts lighting up the night sky and sending up plumes of smoke, with the International Atomic Energy Agency urging an immediate halt to fighting there. “No country other than Russia has ever fired on nuclear power units,” Zelensky said in a video message.
“This is the first time in our history. In the history of mankind. The terrorist state now resorted to nuclear terror. If there is an explosion, it is the end of everything. The end of Europe. This is the evacuation of Europe. Only immediate European action can stop Russian troops,” Zelensky said as he appealed for global help.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of endangering all of Europe after the attack on the nuclear power plant. “The Prime Minister said the reckless actions of President Putin could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe,” according to a Downing Street statement. The station at Zaporizhzhia, an industrial city in southeast Ukraine, supplies an estimated 40 per cent of the country’s nuclear power and, according to Zelensky, houses six of Ukraine’s 15 reactors.
The US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the reactors at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station “are protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being safely shut down”. Ms Granholm tweeted she had just spoken with Ukraine’s energy minister about the situation at the plant. “We have seen no elevated radiation readings near the facility,” Ms Granholm said.
Ukraine’s nuclear facilities have been a main point of concern after Russia’s military invaded the country last week and began bombarding cities with shells and missiles. A nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine’s Chernobyl in April 1986 was one of the worst disasters in the history of nuclear power generation. Mistakes by engineers and compounded by other factors led to an uncontrolled chain reaction that resulted in several massive explosions in Chernobyl in 1986.
Putin, meanwhile, urged the neighbouring countries not to escalate tensions stating that Russia had “no bad intentions” towards its neighbours. “There are no bad intentions towards our neighbours. And I would also advise them not to escalate the situation, not to introduce any restrictions. We fulfil all our obligations and will continue to fulfil them,” Putin said in televised remarks.
The Russian President also said, “We do not see any need here to aggravate or worsen our relations. And all our actions, if they arise, they always arise exclusively in response to some unfriendly actions, actions against the Russian Federation.”
Fighting intensified in southern Ukraine as Kherson became the first city to fall into Russian hands as shelling continued in Mariupol, Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Heavy fighting is continuing on the outskirts of a strategic port city on the Azov Sea, Mariupol. The Russian military said it controlled Kherson, and local Ukrainian officials have confirmed Russian forces have taken over local government headquarters in the Black Sea port of 2.8 lakh people.
A member of Ukraine’s delegation sent to speak with the Russians said both sides have agreed to establish corridors for civilians to safely leave combat zones. The corridors will include cease-fires along the path, said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky.
With no immediate sign of ending the conflict, The Kremlin told Russians on Friday to rally around President Putin and said what happened next in the negotiations over Ukraine would depend on Kyiv’s reaction to this week’s talks between the two sides. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that no documents had been agreed yet with Ukraine at the talks, but that Moscow had told the Ukrainian side how it saw the solution to the war.
Even as India again abstained in a vote in the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, the 47-member Council voted on a draft resolution on the situation of human rights in Ukraine. The resolution was adopted with 32 votes in favour, two against (Russia and Eritrea) and 13 abstentions, including India, China, Pakistan, Sudan and Venezuela. The countries voting in favour included France, Germany, Japan, Nepal, UAE, UK and the US.
“The Human Rights Council has decided to urgently establish an independent international commission of inquiry as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” the Council tweeted. India has abstained on two resolutions on Ukraine in the 15-nation Security Council and one in the 193-member General Assembly in the last one week. The Geneva-based body cannot make legally binding decisions but its decisions send important political messages and can authorise probes, such as the one to be carried out by the three-person commission created by Friday’s vote.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Yevheniia Filipenko, told the Council minutes before the vote that there was “irrefutable evidence of gross and systematic human rights violations as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity by Russia. It is our common duty to ensure accountability by mandating the documentation and verification of Russia’s crimes and identification of those responsible,” she said.
