Russian forces have seized control of the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster after Kremlin forces invaded Ukraine in a “full-scale” assault by land, sea, and air. 

Fighting broke out at Chernobyl on Thursday February 24, after Vladimir Putin launched a major invasion of Ukraine.

Russian troops appear to be advancing towards the Ukrainian capital Kiev after they overran the Chernobyl plant on the first day of Russia’s multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine, a spokeswoman for the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Yevgeniya Kuznetsov?.

“When I came to the office today in the morning [in Kyiv], it turned out, that the [Chernobyl nuclear power plant] management had left. So there was no one to give instructions or defend,” she said.

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian forces were attempting to wrest control of the nuclear plant.

“Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl [Nuclear Power Plant]. Our defenders are sacrificing their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Zelensky tweeted.”This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”

The plant was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident when a reactor exploded in April 1986, sending harmful radioactive waste across Europe.

Speaking as Russian troops entered the area, Vadym Prystaiko, Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, said: “They came through the exclusion zone of Chernobyl.

“This zone is not protected, because there is radiation, nobody lives there. They now came to this particular unprotected part of our borders through the Russian territory.”