Russian forces seize Ukraine nuclear power plant amid besiege of several cities

LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV:  Russian forces in Ukraine seized Europe's biggest nuclear power plant on Friday in an assault that caused alarm around the world and that Washington said had risked catastrophe, although officials said later that the facility was now safe.

Fighting also raged elsewhere in Ukraine as Russian forces besieged and bombarded several cities in the second week of an invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin

The capital Kyiv, in the path of a Russian armoured column that has been stalled on a road for days, came under renewed attack, with explosions audible from the city centre. read more

The southeastern port city of Mariupol - a key prize for the Russian troops - has been encircled and shelled. Its mayor said on Friday it had no water, heat or electricity and is running out of food after five days under attack.

"We are simply being destroyed," Mayor Vadym Boychenko said.

However, NATO allies on Friday rejected Ukraine's appeal for no-fly zones, saying they were increasing support but that stepping in directly would lead to a broader, even more brutal European war.

Putin's actions have drawn almost universal worldwide condemnation and Western countries have imposed heavy sanctions in an effort to squeeze the Russian economy.

 A humanitarian disaster is also unfolding, with more than one million people seeking refuge in western Ukraine and in neighbouring countries. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed or wounded since the start of the Feb. 24 invasion.

The attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant brought the conflict to a perilous moment. As shells hit the area, a blaze broke out in a training building - triggering a spasm of alarm around the world before the fire was extinguished and officials said the facility was safe.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the world had narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe.

The attack reflected a "dangerous new escalation" in Russia's invasion, she said during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, warning that "imminent danger" persisted and demanding assurances from Moscow that such an assault will not happen again.

An official at Energoatom, the Ukrainian state nuclear plant operator, told Reuters fighting had ceased and radiation levels were normal. But his organisation no longer had contact with the plant's managers or control over its nuclear material, he said.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Raphael Grossi said the plant was undamaged from what he believed was a Russian projectile. Only one of its six reactors was working, at around 60% of capacity.

Russia's defence ministry also said the plant was working normally. It blamed the fire on an attack by Ukrainian saboteurs and said its forces were in control.

SOURCE: REUTERS