A fire at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant under Russian control has been extinguished as Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of responsibility.
The UN nuclear agency said dark smoke billowing from the northern side of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had followed reports of multiple explosions on Sunday local time.
Russia's TASS state news agency reported the fire had been put out on Monday, citing Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom.
Ukraine's nuclear power company Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that one of the cooling towers and other equipment was damaged.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) heard the explosions and were told by the Russian management of the plant that a drone had struck one of the plant's two cooling towers.
The nuclear plant in Ukraine's south-east, the largest in Europe, has been under Russian control since 2022.
The agency confirmed there was no safety risk to the facility, which is not operational, but needs power to keep nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident.
Radiation levels were normal within the plant, the IAEA said, as there was no radioactive material affected by the fire.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that Russian forces were responsible for the fire.
"Currently, radiation levels are within norm," he said.
"However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal."
Yevhen Yevtushenko, a local Ukrainian official in Nikopol said there was "unofficial" information that Russian forces had set fire to a large number of automobile tyres in the cooling towers.
The Russian management of the facility said emergency workers had contained the fire and that there was no threat of it spreading further.
Russia's officials in turn, including Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, accused Kyiv of deliberately trying to destroy the plant and sow "nuclear terror."
"These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now," the IAEA's director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.
There have been long-standing concerns about the nuclear plant's safety since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with the plant's electricity and water supply repeatedly under threat.
Ukraine launched its first offensive into Russian territory over the weekend, with 76,000 people evacuated from the Kursk region as Ukrainian troops advanced up to 30 kilometres over the border.
ABC/Reuters
