KYIV: Russian forces shelled Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia, sparking a fire in a building in the plant compound, Ukraine’s state emergency service said Friday.

Earlier, the mayor of the nearby town of Enerhodar said the plant was on fire. But a short time later, the plant director told Ukraine 24 television that the fire had started outside the building perimeter and that security seemed to be restored to the facility, according to Reuters.

Enerhodar is a crucial power-generating city on the Dnieper River nearly 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. The facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and received an update on the fire at the nuclear power plant, according to a White House statement released late Thursday.

Biden and Zelenskyy urged “Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site,” the statement said. It added that Biden had also spoken Thursday with Jill Hruby, the undersecretary for Nuclear Security of the U.S. Department of Energy and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and received an update on the situation at the plant.

(VOA)