Fire seen near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine
"The exact location of the fire and its possible consequences are currently being determined. We emphasise that the cargo port is located outside the protected perimeter of the station," the ministry said in a post on Telegram.
"This incident once again draws attention to the threats posed by the Russian occupation of the largest nuclear facility in Europe," the statement went on to say.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest such facility in Europe, has been a focus of concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the war in Ukraine amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The plant has been held by Russia since the early days of the war following Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022, although it isn't producing power.
The city of Zaporizhzhia, about 440 kilometres southeast of the capital Kyiv, is held by Ukraine and attacks have occurred around the plant as the front line is close.
The IAEA rotates staff through the facility to check safety and offer its expertise.
Russia has suggested restarting the Zaporizhzhia plant in the past.
"We are going to be continuing our discussions with both, in particular with the Russians on this idea of (the) restart of the plant," Grossi told journalists in May.
"It is a matter that requires very careful consideration."
Zaporizhzhia's six reactors remain fuelled with uranium though they are in a so-called cold shutdown, meaning nuclear reactions have stopped.
However, the plant relies on external electricity to keep its reactor cool and power other safety systems. That external power has been cut multiple times in the war, forcing the plant to rely on on-site diesel generators.
Further complicating potentially turning the plant back on is the 2023 collapse of the Kakhova Dam on the Dnieper River.
The plant relied on water from the river for its reservoir, forcing workers there to dig wells.
"The plant lost its main source of cooling water, so the whole system cannot work as it was originally designed," Grossi said.
"The consumption of water is orders of magnitude higher (when the plant is operating) compared to cold shutdown. We don't see any easy, quick fix for it."
The Zaporizhzhia plant has also been mentioned by US President Donald Trump as he has struggled to reach a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine.
In a March phone call with Zelenskyy, Trump suggested the US could own and run Ukraine's nuclear power plants and protect them from Russian attacks.
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Euronews
5 days ago
- Euronews
Fire seen near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine
Smoke has been detected near a cargo facility belonging to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the energy ministry said in a statement. "The exact location of the fire and its possible consequences are currently being determined. We emphasise that the cargo port is located outside the protected perimeter of the station," the ministry said in a post on Telegram. "This incident once again draws attention to the threats posed by the Russian occupation of the largest nuclear facility in Europe," the statement went on to say. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest such facility in Europe, has been a focus of concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the war in Ukraine amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. The plant has been held by Russia since the early days of the war following Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022, although it isn't producing power. The city of Zaporizhzhia, about 440 kilometres southeast of the capital Kyiv, is held by Ukraine and attacks have occurred around the plant as the front line is close. The IAEA rotates staff through the facility to check safety and offer its expertise. Russia has suggested restarting the Zaporizhzhia plant in the past. "We are going to be continuing our discussions with both, in particular with the Russians on this idea of (the) restart of the plant," Grossi told journalists in May. "It is a matter that requires very careful consideration." Zaporizhzhia's six reactors remain fuelled with uranium though they are in a so-called cold shutdown, meaning nuclear reactions have stopped. However, the plant relies on external electricity to keep its reactor cool and power other safety systems. That external power has been cut multiple times in the war, forcing the plant to rely on on-site diesel generators. Further complicating potentially turning the plant back on is the 2023 collapse of the Kakhova Dam on the Dnieper River. The plant relied on water from the river for its reservoir, forcing workers there to dig wells. "The plant lost its main source of cooling water, so the whole system cannot work as it was originally designed," Grossi said. "The consumption of water is orders of magnitude higher (when the plant is operating) compared to cold shutdown. We don't see any easy, quick fix for it." The Zaporizhzhia plant has also been mentioned by US President Donald Trump as he has struggled to reach a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine. In a March phone call with Zelenskyy, Trump suggested the US could own and run Ukraine's nuclear power plants and protect them from Russian attacks.
Euronews
03-08-2025
- Euronews
How a Ukrainian NGO is preserving everyday medieval life
St. Sophia's Cathedral, one of eight UNESCO world heritage sites in Ukraine, is one of the few surviving buildings from the Kyivan Rus era and one of the most important Christian shrines in all of Europe. Built in the 11th century, it preserves not only the high art of the time period, but also remnants of everyday medieval life. Namely, 7,500 inscriptions - including notes, names, prayers, and drawings - left by ordinary inhabitants of Kyiv. 'The walls of St. Sophia's Cathedral have preserved not only thousand year-old mosaics and frescoes, recognized as masterpieces of medieval art, but also thousands of inscriptions and drawings that visitors etched over centuries,' Vyacheslav Kornienko, Deputy General Director for Scientific Work of the Sofia National Reserve, said in a press release obtained by Euronews. 'These graffiti are a vast archive of invaluable historical records, offering us a glimpse into various aspects of life in those times,' he added. The project comes at a particularly crucial time for the fight to preserve and defend Ukrainian heritage and cultural identity. In 2024, Unesco published a list of 343 cultural sites verified to have suffered damage since the beginning of the Russian invasion. In July of this year, a Russian drone attack on Odessa damaged UNESCO-protected landmarks, such as Prymorskyi Boulevard and the Pryvoz Market, both part of the historic city center. Geared at appealing to young people and following the growing trend of digitally preserving cultural heritage, the so-called 'Graffiti Chronicles' aim to preserve the history of everyday people and highlight Ukrainian resilience. 'Since I first saw these symbols in 2021, I was fascinated by what they could tell us about our past. It was incredible to think that ordinary people like us stood in front of these walls and wrote their fears, dreams, and wishes, the same way we can stand and look at them now, a thousand years later,' Agatha Gorski, co-founder of the shadows project, said in the press release. 'Our team wanted to find a way to bring these unique and important pieces of history out of the shadows, inviting Ukrainians to discover for themselves what these hidden gems can tell us about our heritage,' she added. At the next stage of the project, QR codes will be installed next to the graffiti on the walls of the cathedral museum, allowing visitors to access the digital archive and additional information about the works from their phones. 'They do everything possible to strip us of our historical memory' For Ukrainians, now in the third year of full-scale war, the ability to digitize their history and culture has become relevant as ever. 'Digitized documents, objects of material heritage, and cultural monuments help preserve their memory in the form of a digital copy, even when the original no longer exists,' Dr. Vyacheslav Kornienko said in an interview with Euronews. 'This has become especially relevant for us during the war, as Russian aggressors deliberately destroy cultural sites and loot museums - in other words they do everything possible to strip us of our historical memory,' he added. While the process of digitally archiving cultural artefacts and documents is an important step, he admitted that more work is needed to complete the preservation process and avoid the loss of cultural heritage and historical memory. 'I believe that the best option is to combine both: digital copies should be created separately (like a deposit for safekeeping), but these copies should then serve as the basis for scholarly research, including monographs, catalogs, and articles that feature these heritage items,' he told Euronews. The digital versions of the graffiti at St. Sophia's Cathedral are not simply scans or photos, but rather 3D visualizations of it, preserved in video format. They also include information about the symbols and their meaning which was not previously available in English. Fighting Russian misinformation For Ukrainians, preserving cultural heritage, even from the Medieval era, can help to fight disinformation in the modern day. This includes disinformation spread by Russia in order to justify its invasion, such as the narrative that Russia and Ukraine were one during the Kyivan Rus period. 'I think this topic of the Kyivan Rus is a highly contested aspect and one that is a huge part of Russia's disinformation operations and how it tries to weaponize culture,' Agatha Gorski, who grew up across from St. Sophia's, said in an interview with Euronews. 'This is one of the first things that Putin said before the invasion, one of the key arguments, [he said in a speech that] Russia and Ukraine are one people,' she added. 'He very often likes to use this claim and go back into the times of the Kievan Rus, and use it to justify the invasion, and to justify the fact that Ukraine is not an independent nation, so for me, it was really important to also take this time period, because it's super crucial to us, and super crucial to our knowledge gaps, to fill that in,' she added. More than this, the lives of people from centuries ago can also serve as a symbol in an of itself for the resilience of the Ukrainian people and their culture, something that the Shadows Project has seeked to emphasize in this project, as well as in their other work. 'For me, any kind of history starts with people. In people's everyday lives and in experiences because this is really what can tell us the most. This is also again kind of the parallel for me with the shadows project where for us like we really try to tell the stories of people and we try to really make history accessible, make history alive, and tell it through the experiences of others,' Gorski told Euronews.
AFP
01-08-2025
- AFP
Months-old videos depict Myanmar tremor, not Russian quake
"Tonight (July 30), a powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, categorised as a 'very shallow earthquake'," reads part of the traditional Chinese caption of a Threads clip shared on July 30, 2025. The clip appears to show CCTV footage of the inside of a shop as a tremor hits, sending shelves crashing down. A similar TikTok video, also shared on July 30, shows staff scrambling for cover under desks as the quake strikes. "Sad news from Russia. An 8.7 earthquake followed by a tsunami happened this morning," reads its Indonesian-language caption. Image Screenshots of the false Threads and TikTok posts captured on July 31, 2025, with red Xs added by AFP They surfaced hours after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, prompting evacuations and tsunami alerts across parts of the Pacific coast (archived link). Fears of a catastrophe subsided, however, with country after country lifting or downgrading warnings and telling coastal residents they could return. The circulating clips were also shared in similar Douyin, Facebook, Instagram and X posts. But the clips in fact show the impact of a different earthquake. Myanmar temblor A closer analysis of the first falsely shared clip shows a timecode in its top-right corner that reads, "2025-03-28", which is when a 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar (archived link). were killed in the quake, which destroyed swathes of homes and businesses (archived link). Image Screenshot of the falsely shared clip, with the timecode magnified by AFP A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip led to a longer version that was shared on TikTok on March 30 by an account called "Top One Mobile" (archived link). "It's not easy to run within three seconds," reads its Burmese-language caption. Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the TikTok video posted in March (right) The account also shared a similar video from a different angle (archived link). Subsequent keyword searches led to the same footage posted on the YouTube channel "2025 Sagaing Earthquake Archive", which said it showed a shop in Tada-U, Myanmar (archived link). Google Maps images of the Top One store front match other videos posted by the TikTok account (archived here and here). An analysis of the second falsely shared clip shows a decal on the wall that reads, "Lady Bug". A combination of keyword searches and reverse image searches led to a TikTok video posted on May 7, on the account of a salon and cosmetics supplier called Lady Bug (archived link). The video's Burmese-language caption includes a hashtag for the March 28 earthquake, and says the staff shown in the video were safe. The date, "2025-03-28", can also be seen in the video's top-right corner. Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the video posted in May (right) The shop also shared the video on their Facebook page on May 11, alongside an announcement that the branch on 62nd Street in the central city of Mandalay had to be demolished because of damage caused by the quake (archived link). "We are looking for a new location for the shop and we will be back soon," it adds. Google Maps imagery of the location in Mandalay now shows a flattened plot (archived link). AFP has also debunked other misinformation, which often surfaces after natural disasters, related to the July 30 quake.
