Ukraine has lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site after a violent battle with Russian, Ukrainian troops military and adviser to the presidency office said Thursday.
rooms of the south of Kherson region and the airfield of Hostomel, to the northwest of the capital of Kyiv were also reportedly captured by Russian forces.
Russian troops took over Chernobyl as Ukrainian forces fought them on three sides on On Thursday, after Moscow launched an assault by land, sea and air in most grand attack on a European state since World War II.
“It is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power the plant is safe after a totally useless operation attack by the Russians,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“This is one of the most serious threats in Europe today,” Podolyak said.
Zelensky had announced many hours earlier Thursday as Russian forces attempted to seize Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
“Our defenders give their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not repeat itself”, he tweeted shortly before the power plant was captured.
“It’s a statement of war against the totality of Europe.”
A nuclear reactor at the power plant 130 kilometers (80 miles) away north of Kyiv exploded in April 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe.
The exploded reactor was covered with a shelter of protection several years ago to prevent radiation leakage.
Podolyak told The Associated Press (AP) that Ukrainian authorities had no know the current state of Chernobyl facilities.
a little russian military mass in the Chernobyl “exclusion zone” before entering Ukraine early on Thursday, said a Russian security source.
Russia wants to control the Chernobyl nuclear reactor to signal NATO must not interfere militarily, the same source told Reuters.
A Ukrainian official said Russian bombardment hit a radioactive waste repository and an increase in radiation levels were reported. the official spoke on state of anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject.
It wasn’t right away possible for experts for access the depot to assess the damage before Russian forces take the site.
Elsewhere, parts of the south of Kherson region were no longer under Kyiv’s control, said the regional administration.
Armored columns pressed earlier towards Kherson in the main Russian advance on the first daytime of the invasion.
Kherson region government said 13 civilians had been killed, including two childrenand nine Ukrainians soldiers died in the fighting in the area.
Zelensnkyy urged Moscow to end hostilities, adding that Russian airborne troops had been checked outside Kyiv.
“It was not Ukraine that chose path of war, but Ukraine offers to leave back to the path of peace,” he said.
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said Russian forces captured Hostomel airport in the Kyiv region where paratroopers had previously been landed.
Ukrainian military authorities said earlier that 20 Russian helicopters and Mi-8 planes sent paratroopers to the airport, which has a big track.
fierce fighting was going on place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Odessa in South.
Zelensnkyy said that many aircraft from combat and Russian armor vehicles were destroyed but didn’t give Numbers. He also says an indeterminate number of Russian troops are captured.
He said a difficult situation was developing in Kharkov, Ukraine second-most grand city just over 20 kilometers from the Russian border. In the north the Russians are slowly advancing towards Chernihiv, Zelenskyy said.
The suburbs of The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was also under heavy fire and hundreds of explosions were observed there, a diplomatic source told Reuters on Thusday.
Zelensky appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now if you fail to offer strong aid to Ukraine, tomorrow war will strike on your door. »
