March 3, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been put out, according to a statement from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service on Friday. 

"At 06:20 the fire at the Zaporizhzhia NPP training building in Enerhodar was extinguished. There are no dead or injured,” the statement said.

Airbnb is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus, the company’s CEO Brian Chesky said in a tweet on Friday.

Airbnb joins a growing number of international companies dialing back operations in Russia, including Apple, Disney and Ford.

Read more here.

In a Facebook post early Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of intentionally firing at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after a fire broke out at the facility following heavy shelling from Russian forces.

Ukrainian authorities say the power plant has not sustained any critical damage, and that radiation levels are currently normal, though the situation remains fluid and firefighters continue to battle the blaze.

“Russian tanks are shooting at the atomic blocks equipped with thermal imagers. They know what they are shooting at. They’ve been preparing for this (attack),” he said in the post.

Zelensky also referred to the Chernobyl tragedy and its victims in the post. "For all Ukrainians, for all Europeans, for all people who know the word 'Chernobyl,' how many victims there were."

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which took place in Soviet Ukraine, is considered the worst nuclear accident in history. It was a "global catastrophe that affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," and had a lasting impact on the country, Zelensky said.

What's happening now: Ukrainian authorities say fighting has stopped in the area and about 40 firefighters are working to put out the blaze.

But the very fact Russia launched an attack at the plant is itself an extremely dangerous act and could cause a potential catastrophe, he said. "There are 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine. If one of them blows, that’s the end for everyone, that’s the end of Europe," he added.

"No country besides Russia has ever fired upon an atomic power plant’s reactors. The first time, the first time in history," he said, urging European leaders to "wake up now" and stop Russian forces “before this becomes a nuclear disaster.” 

The mayor of Kharkiv, the northeastern city under siege by Russian forces, told CNN on Friday the Russian military is "intentionally trying to eliminate Ukrainian people" as it targets civilian spaces.

“The situation is extremely difficult," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. "To date, Kharkiv has been hard impacted by continuous bombardment. Planes are flying constantly, (rockets) are being launched, grenades are launched, and residential houses are being hit."

There are no Ukrainian troops stationed in the residential blocks, according to Terekhov. “That means that they are purposefully hitting the residential buildings,” he said.

While many residents are taking shelter, “a great number” have been killed, Terekhov said, adding that many are wounded and in hospital. 

The state emergency services in Ukraine on Thursday morning said 34 civilians in the Kharkiv region had been killed in just 24 hours, and another 285 injured.

The fire that broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Friday started in a training building outside the main reactor complex, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Services (SES). 

"As of 05:20am (local time), the State Emergency Service Units responded to the fire at the training building of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant," SES said in a statement on Telegram.

Some 40 firefighters and 10 units are now working to tackle the blaze, SES said. 

“The occupiers will face severe punishment for this cynical attack on the largest nuclear power plant in EUROPE!” the statement read. 

A spokesperson for the nuclear power plant, Andrii Tuz, told CNN on Friday, “I have no idea how far Putin will go. Nobody believed that they could start shooting at a nuclear power plant. We need to stop the war now! And not wait for the onset of a nuclear catastrophe!”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the “gravely concerning situation” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, he said in a tweet Friday.

“Russia must immediately cease its attack on the power station and allow unfettered access for emergency services to the plant," Johnson said.

Johnson's office released a statement after the two leaders' call, saying the United Kingdom "would do everything it could to ensure the situation did not deteriorate further."

Emergency UN meeting: The statement added that Johnson will seek an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting in the coming hours, where the UK plans to raise this issue with Russia and its partners.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has put its Incident and Emergency Centre in "full 24/7 response mode" due to the "serious situation" at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the agency said on Twitter.

The agency is in contact with Ukrainian authorities about the ongoing fire at the power plant.

Read the tweet:

New videos posted to social media show the horrific aftermath of Russian military strikes that hit an apartment complex in the northern city of Chernihiv on Thursday. 

CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of this and other videos that show the moment of the strikes and the aftermath.

One video shows the strike as it happens, with residential buildings torn apart in a split second. Sirens echo as the camera shows parts of the building’s walls torn open, exposing entire apartment rooms. The walls of one apartment complex were reduced to rubble.

A fire is seen on the ground, with smoke elsewhere still rising from the explosion. 

The person filming the video moves out into the street, which is littered with debris and damaged cars. The video shows an injured woman on the ground, beside two people who appear burned and unmoving. "Kids ... little kids," she can be heard saying.

CNN does not know the condition of the woman seen in the video.

A second before the military strikes, the roar of a projectile is heard on a surveillance video from a nearby house in Chernihiv, which shows at least five explosions. 

Deaths reported: The Ukrainian Emergency Services said on Twitter that as of 6:20 p.m. local time, they had pulled 33 bodies from the rubble of the complex in addition to 18 injured people.

There are no military facilities nearby, only civilian structures like residential buildings and schools, the Chernihiv Regional State Administration told CNN.

All eyes are on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, where officials reported a fire breaking out amid heavy shelling by Russian forces. Here's what we know:

What happened? Ukrainian authorities said about 2:30 a.m. local time Friday that a fire had broken out at the nuclear power complex, located in Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine.

The plant is the largest of its kind in Ukraine and contains six of the country's 15 nuclear energy reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Fighting has since stopped in the area, a spokesperson for the power plant, Andrii Tuz, told CNN.

How serious is the situation? It's hard to say since there is still a lot we don't know — such as where the fire is located within the complex, whether the reactors have been impacted, whether there are secondary and tertiary cooling systems in place, and more.

But the plant has not sustained any "critical" damage, Tuz said. The fire has not affected any "essential" equipment, and staff are taking action to mitigate any damage, said the IAEA, citing Ukrainian authorities.

Are we seeing any radiation spikes? No — nuclear regulators and government bodies in the US and Ukraine say radiation levels appear normal at the moment.

What are the risks and how likely are they? The worst-case scenario would be if a fire or attack reached the reactors, disrupted their cooling system and caused a meltdown, which would release large amounts of radioactivity.

Graham Allison, professor at the Belfer Center, Harvard University, told CNN early Friday that plants have systems to automatically fight fires, but not "all fires" — so the situation depends on where the blaze is happening. And "not all fires in a power plant, have catastrophic consequences," he said.