Putin’s Forces Overrun Ukrainian Nuclear Plant

• Ukraine’s Culture Ministry raises alarm over historic sites

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has reportedly fallen to the superior firing power of Russian military forces as efforts at putting off the fire that engulfed the site early on Friday morning proved highly successful.

An update written at 7.30 am on the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine’s Facebook page reads: “The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is captured by the military forces of the Russian Federation.”

However, the inspectorate says employees are continuing to work on the premises, while operational personnel control the safe condition of the power units.

According to the inspectorate units, two and three have been disconnected from the network and nuclear installations are being cooled down with the update adding that; “Changes in the radiation state for the current time have not been recorded.”

However, the potential loss of cooling nuclear fuel could lead to “significant radioactive emissions into the environment” and such an event “may outgrow all previous NPP accidents, including the Chernobyl NPP and Fukusima-Daichi NPP”, the authority said

Regional authorities further said that any damage to a reservoir of processed nuclear fuel as a result of the shelling could also lead to radioactive discharge.

Ministry Sounds Alarm Bell

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Culture Ministry has called for closing the skies over Ukraine because Russian forces are “destroying Ukrainian cultural sites”.

Oleksandr Tkachenko, Ukraine’s minister of culture and information policy, said most of Putin’s “war crimes” in his country had been “committed from the air.”

A statement by the Ministry said Russia’s missiles and planes are deliberately destroying historic centers of big cities. Putin wants to destroy Europe’s heritage and culture, wipe it from the face of the earth.

It warned: “A mad dictator threatens to destroy St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, a UNESCO church built in the 11th century. Hundreds of innocent victims, the total destruction of churches, cathedrals, and museums – is the price of the still opened sky over Ukraine. – The Guardian reports