new York There was a fire last night on the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. During fighting near the city of Zaporizhia, Russian troops are said to have fired on the nuclear power plant there. A fire broke out on the property during the night, according to the press service of the AKW. According to Ukrainian authorities, the fire was extinguished in the early morning. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna was involved.
Shortly before 3:30 a.m., the IAEA tweeted: The fire did not damage any essential equipment at the nuclear power plant, and so far there have been no reports of increased radiation. The director of the plant also assured on Ukrainian television that radiation safety would continue to be guaranteed.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the fire broke out in a training center at the nuclear facility. In the nuclear power plant, only the fourth block is currently in operation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke via Telegram and spoke of targeted fire from Russian tanks. “There are tanks equipped with thermal imaging cameras. That means they know where they are shooting, they have prepared for it,” said the head of state in his video message. These statements could not initially be verified independently.
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“Europe must wake up now,” demanded Zelenski. “Right now Russian tanks are shelling the reactor blocks.” He is demanding that Ukraine’s airspace be closed.
In the nuclear power plant, only the fourth block is currently said to be in operation.
(Photo: dpa)
The West had previously rejected this, since such a step would result in direct NATO intervention in the war zone. The Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko again campaigned for this. “We demand not only a professional assessment of what is happening, but real intervention with the toughest measures, including by NATO and the countries that possess nuclear weapons,” he wrote in a post on Facebook.
After a phone call with Zelensky, US President Joe Biden called on Russia to end its military activities in the area around the nuclear power plant. The Russian army must allow firefighters and rescue workers access to the site, Biden said.
The plant was apparently attacked by Russia during the night. Images that may show bullet impacts on the site have since been circulated on social media. The origin of the images has not yet been verified by independent sources.
(Photo: AP)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also spoken to the President of Ukraine and subsequently expressed his concern. Vladimir Putin’s “reckless actions” “could now directly endanger the security of all of Europe,” Johnson said early Friday morning. In a statement, the prime minister said he wanted to hold a special session of the UN Security Council on the situation at the nuclear power plant “in the coming hours”.
Moscow itself had informed the IAEA that Russian units had taken control of the area around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. From the point of view of the IAEA, the plant itself is also under Russian control, although operation is continued by Ukrainian employees and under the supervision of the authorities in Kyiv.
There are several nuclear facilities in Ukraine. On April 26, 1986, one of the worst catastrophes in the peaceful use of nuclear energy occurred in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. After the explosion of a reactor block of the nuclear power plant, radioactive substances spread over large parts of Europe over several days.
>> More about the Read the latest developments in the Ukraine war in our news blog
Cherson probably in Russian hands
The fighting also continued in other parts of the country. The US government assumes that the regional capital of Cherson in southern Ukraine is most likely controlled by the Russian army. “There are certainly indications that (the Russians) are doing this,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
But you have to be careful, the Americans have no one on site who can confirm that. “So we can’t say for sure, but we have no reason to doubt the reports coming from the Ukrainians themselves that the Russians are in Kherson.”
On Thursday morning, the assessment was still that the city was contested, Kirby said. However, it is assumed that this has now changed. Earlier there had been reports that Kherson had apparently been abandoned by the Ukrainian army. There was no more talk of fighting for the city in the situation reports of the Ukrainian army.
investors worried
Reports of fierce fighting near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant are also unsettling investors. Markets in Asia and the euro suffered heavy losses on Friday as oil prices surged. “Markets are worried about nuclear fallout. The risk is that there will be a misjudgment or overreaction and the war will prolong,” said Vasu Menon, investment strategist at OCBC Bank. Investors therefore shied away from the risk.
The MSCI index of Asian stocks ex-Japan fell 1.6 percent to its lowest level since November 2020. On the Tokyo stock exchange, the 225-stock Nikkei index fell more than two percent to 26,021 points. The broader Topix index fell 1.9 percent to 1847 points.
>> Read about this: Asia’s markets start significantly weaker – Dow futures fall more than 400 points
Temporary protection status
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians already in the United States are allowed to stay in the United States for an additional 18 months. The US Department of Homeland Security granted them temporary protected status. “During these extraordinary times, we will continue to offer our support and protection to Ukrainian nationals in the United States,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said.
The background is a protection program with the abbreviation TPS, which grants a temporary residence permit in the USA. It is intended for people from countries that have been hit by natural disasters or war. The regulation applies to Ukrainians who have been in the USA without interruption since March 1, 2022. You must pass a security check. People attempting to travel to the United States after March 1, 2022 are not eligible for TPS.
According to an estimate by the Migration Policy Institute, around 30,000 Ukrainians who are in the United States on temporary visas will benefit from the program.
Here you can read current Handelsblatt reports:
Barely creditworthy
The situation in Russia is becoming increasingly tense. The harsh economic sanctions imposed by the West are clearly clouding the country’s economic outlook. According to the major US bank JP Morgan, the Russian economy could shrink by around 35 percent in the second quarter. For the year as a whole, the US bank assumes a decline of seven percent. The development will be comparable to the crises of 1998 and 2008 and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The country’s creditworthiness continues to decline. The rating agency Standards & Poor (S&P) recently downgraded Russia’s rating from “BB+” to “CCC-“. This represents a further downgrading of eight notches to the so-called junk area for speculative bonds. The rating is only just above the insolvency category.
Residents of Russia also have greater difficulty finding independent information about what is happening. The independent radio and television stations Echo Moscow and Dozhd have gone silent. Likewise, access to Twitter, Facebook, Deutsche Welle, the BBC and other media is apparently no longer possible.
The Russian authorities apparently control the media tightly. It is required to report only in strict accordance with the enacted language rules. So should not be spoken of an “invasion” or a “war”, or passed on Ukrainian messages.
>> Read about this: Junk rating, index exclusion, stopped stock exchange trading: almost nothing works for Russian securities anymore
With agency material