The U.S. embassy in Kyiv said on Friday that Russia’s attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe — was a war crime.
“t is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant,” US Embassy Kyiv said on Twitter. “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further”.
It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant. Putin's shelling of Europe's largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further. #TheHague #Zaporizhzhia #StandwithUkraine
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) March 4, 2022
Russia earlier has taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia NPP, which is also among the world’s 10 largest nuclear power plants.
The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting over the attack on Zaporizhzhia.
Located in southeastern Ukraine near the city of Enerhodar, the plant generates 20% of Ukraine’s electricity.
A total of six reactors, each with a net capacity of 950 megawatts, can supply energy to nearly 4 million households with a total electricity production of 5,700 megawatts.
“This just underscores how reckless the Russian invasion has been and how indiscriminate their targeting seems to be. It just raises the level of potential catastrophe to a level that nobody wants to see,” Pentagon spokesman; John Kirby said on Friday during an interview with CNN.
“It is certainly not the behavior of a responsible nuclear power.”
The attack on the biggest nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine triggered global alarm, but a huge blaze in a training building has been extinguished and officials said the facility was now safe.
Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the EU, US, and the UK, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.
More than 1.2 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, according to the UN refugee agency.