Russia seizes Europe’s largest nuclear plant as sanctions mount

Russian forces seized Europe's biggest nuclear power plant on Friday in heavy shelling in southeastern Ukraine, sparking a fire there that was later extinguished and officials said the facility was now safe.

As the war entered the ninth day, more businesses such as Apple, Mercedes-Benz, BP, Volkswagen, clothing retailer H&M and furnishings store IKEA, suspended operations in Russia due to sanctions, affecting thousands of employees and millions of customers throughout the country.

Combat raged elsewhere in Ukraine as Russian forces surrounded several cities.

An advance had been halted on the southern city of Mykolayiv after local authorities said Russian troops had entered it. If captured, the city of 500,000 people would be the biggest yet to fall, Reuters reports.

The capital Kyiv, in the path of a huge Russian armoured column that has been stalled on a road for days, came under renewed attack, with air raid sirens blaring in the morning and explosions audible from the city centre.

The fire at a training building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant sent global stock markets plunging.

Although the plant was said to be safe and the fire out, officials remained worried about the precarious circumstances, with Ukrainian staff operating under Russian control in battlefield conditions beyond the reach of administrators.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Raphael Grossi described the situation as "normal operations, but in fact there is nothing normal about this".

He paid homage to the plant's Ukrainian staff saying "To their bravery, to their courage, to their resilience because they are doing this in very difficult circumstances."

Grossi said the plant was undamaged from what he believed was a Russian projectile. Only one reactor was working, at around 60% of capacity. He was trying to contact Russian and Ukrainian officials to sort out political responsibility.

An official at Energoatom, the Ukrainian state nuclear plant operator, said there was no further fighting and radiation was normal, but his organisation no longer had contact with the plant's management or control over potentially dangerous nuclear material.

"Personnel are on their working places providing normal operation of the station," the official told Reuters.

Russia's defence ministry also said the plant was working normally. It blamed the fire on a "monstrous attack" by Ukrainian saboteurs and said its forces were in control.

Ukrainian president asks Europeans to wake up

After the Russian forces took control of the nuclear power plant that provides more than a fifth of Ukraine's electricity, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Europeans to wake up.

"Europeans, please wake up. Tell your politicians – Russian troops are shooting at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine," Zelenskiy said in a video address.

In another address, he called on Russians to protest against Putin's aggression. 

Russian forces advancing from three directions have besieged cities, pounding them with artillery and air strikes. Moscow says its aim is to disarm its neighbour and capture leaders it calls neo-Nazis and a threat to its own security.

Ukraine and its Western allies call that a baseless pretext for a war to conquer a country of 44 million people.

Sanctions mount

As sanctions from the west mounts on Russia, ultra-wealthy Russians who own properties across Europe are finding themselves in a spot of bother. Britain slapped sanctions on two more Russians, who are worth a combined $19 billion, for their links to the Kremlin.

The US State Department is also imposing visa bans on 19 Russian oligarchs and dozens of their family members and associates.

Austria's former chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel has quit his post on the supervisory board of Russian oil firm Lukoil.

The Austria Press Agency quoted Schuessel on Friday as saying that while he had always backed "constructive relations" between Russia and the European Union, the Russian invasion of neighbour Ukraine had "crossed a red line."

Russia has been subjected to economic isolation never seen before and Ireland's foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said more EU sanctions were coming.

"I suspect all Russian-flagged ships will be banned from entering EU ports. I also suspect that we'll be banning other imports like steel, timber, aluminium and possibly coal as well," Coveney told Irish national broadcaster RTE.

Casualties and number of refugees

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed or wounded and more than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since 24 Feb, when Putin ordered the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

The United Nations has said 1 million people have fled Ukraine since the attack began. This amounts to more than 2% of Ukraine's population, though some of those fleeing are citizens of other countries. Unicef said Friday that 5,00,000 of those who've left Ukraine are children.

Russia has acknowledged that nearly 500 Russian troops have been killed and around 1,600 have been wounded. Among them, Maj Gen Andrei Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division, who had previous experience in Syria.

Ukraine has not released similar casualty figures for its armed forces.

The UN human rights office says at least 227 civilians have been killed and 525 wounded in Ukraine since the start of the invasion. Ukraine's State Emergency Service has said more than 2,000 civilians have died, though it's impossible to verify the claim, reports AP.

Diplomatic efforts on as humanitarian corridors agreed

Delegates from Ukraine and Russia met in Belarus on Thursday and agreed on humanitarian corridors that would allow civilians to flee safely and allow for humanitarian supplies to be delivered — but made little headway on ending the fighting.

A third round of direct talks are planned for early next week.

In a call initiated by Putin, he told French President Emmanuel Macron that negotiations must centre on the "neutralisation and disarmament of Ukraine," according to a French official. Macron "spoke the truth" to Putin, advising him of the long-term consequences and telling him he would end up isolated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with US President Joe Biden and other world leaders after Russia's shelling of the Ukrainian nuclear plant. Zelenskyy said in a late night speech he feared an explosion that would be "the end for everyone."

The Biden administration is seeking $10 billion for Ukraine and the neighbouring region for humanitarian, security and economic assistance, a rapid escalation of the $1.4 billion provided by the US since 2021.

Japan said Friday it is sending bulletproof vests, helmets and other defence supplies to Ukraine to help the country fight Russia's invasion — a rare move by a nation that has a principle of not shipping defence supplies to countries in conflict.