Ukraine said that Russian forces attacked the station in the early hours of this morning, and that a fire broke out in a 5-storey training building adjacent to it, in an incident that sparked international condemnation of Moscow on the eighth day of its invasion of Ukraine.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the nuclear plant was operating normally and the area had been under Russian control since Feb. 28.
He added: “Last night in the vicinity of the power plant, the Kyiv nationalist regime made a brutal provocation attempt. At around 2 am during a guard patrol in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, a mobile National Guard patrol was attacked by a Ukrainian sabotage group.”
He continued: “Intense small arms fire was fired at soldiers of the Russian National Guard from the windows of several floors of a training complex located outside the power plant.”
He said that the Russian patrol returned fire to repel the attack, and that the “sabotage group” had left the training complex and set it on fire as it was leaving.
The words of the Russian spokesman contradict the Ukrainian version of events.
Earlier, video from the station verified by Reuters showed a building spewing fire and a hail of shells before a large glowing ball lit up in the sky and exploded next to a parking lot, sending smoke billowing across the complex.