Move comes after reports revealed that Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had caught fire, reports Asian Lite News
In response to the fire at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said on Friday that the Department of Energy has “activated its Nuclear Incident Response Team” and is monitoring the situation.
In a series of tweets, Granholm said, “I just spoke with Ukraine’s energy minister about the situation at the Zaphorizhizia nuclear plant. Russian military operations near the plant are reckless and must cease.”
She added that the Department of Energy “has activated its Nuclear Incident Response Team and is monitoring events in consultation with Department of Defense, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the White House. We have seen no elevated radiation readings near the facility”.
Granholm added that the Zaphorizhizia plant’s reactors are “protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being safely shut down”. The fire erupted earlier in the day on the third, fourth and fifth floor of the plant`s training building after Russian troops shelled the complex.
The blaze was brought under control at about 6.20 AM. In the wake of the incident, share prices tumbled in Asia, the BBC reported.
Ukraine N-reactors shut down
Meanwhile, Granholm said the reactors at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station “are protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being safely shut down”.
Granholm said on Twitter she had just spoken with Ukraine’s energy minister about the situation at the plant, where a fire broke out during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
“We have seen no elevated radiation readings near the facility,” Granholm said.
‘Staff of US private military companies in Ukraine’
US military intelligence has launched a large-scale campaign to recruit contract soldiers from private military companies (PMC) to be sent to Ukraine, said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov.
“US military intelligence has launched a large-scale campaign to recruit PMC contractors to be sent to Ukraine,” he said.
First of all, employees of the American PMCs — Academi, Cubic and Dean Corporation — are recruited, Konashenkov said, RT reported.
The representative of the ministry also noted that Britain, Denmark, Latvia, Poland and Croatia have legally allowed their citizens to participate in the hostilities on the territory of Ukraine.
“The command of the French foreign legion plans to send military personnel – ethnic Ukrainians – to help the Kiev regime,” he said.
Foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine are committing sabotage and raids on Russian convoys of equipment and supplies, as well as aircraft covering them,” Konashenkov said.
The Russian armed forces surrounded and destroyed the main groups of Ukrainian nationalists, and it was against this background that mercenaries from other countries began to arrive in Ukraine, he said.
“We draw your attention to the fact that against the backdrop of the encirclement and destruction of the main groups of Ukrainian nationalists by the Russian armed forces, Western countries have increased the dispatch of contract soldiers from private military companies to the combat areas,” he said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has warned that all mercenaries who come to Ukraine to help the Kiev regime are not combatants and are not eligible for prisoner of war status, RT reported.
“I want to officially emphasise that all mercenaries sent by the West to help the Kiev nationalist regime are not combatants under international humanitarian law. They are not entitled to prisoner of war status,” he said.
“The best thing” that awaits foreign mercenaries upon arrest is criminal prosecution, Konashenkov added.
“We urge citizens of foreign countries planning to go to fight for the Kiev nationalist regime to think twice before the trip,” the representative of the defense department concluded.