UPDATE - Fire breaks out in Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukrainian official says operating 'as normal'

By Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) — A fire broke out Sunday in Europe's largest nuclear power plant, located in southern Ukraine, while the UN's atomic energy watchdog saying nuclear safety was not affected.

Experts observed "strong dark smoke" from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant's northern area after explosions were heard in the evening, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on X, adding: "No impact has been reported for nuclear safety."

Ukraine and Russia have been trading blame over the incident.

"Six units in the power plant are in cold shutdown, there is no explosion or other danger," the Russian-installed regional governor of Zaporizhzhia, Yevgeny Balitsky, said in a written statement.

He added that the fire broke out in the cooling system of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant due to shelling by the Ukrainian army.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they "recorded from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant."

"Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world," Zelenskyy said on X.

For his part, the head of the district military administration of Nikopol, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said on Telegram that the facility is currently "operating as normal as possible under the conditions of occupation," according to the Ukrinform.