Boris warns ‘radioactive clouds’ could spread over Europe if Russia attack nuclear plants | UK | News

The Prime Minister said he believes the Russian President intends to “double down” on his onslaught, envisaging “no way out” but to ‘continue with the destruction’. He described being woken during the night by a phone call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was “extremely concerned” about events at the power station in Zaporizhzhia.

The US ambassador to the United Nations told an emergency security council meeting that “the world had narrowly avoided a nuclear catastrophe” and warned that Russian troops were advancing on Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear plant, Rivne.

In a telephone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, Mr Johnson said Vladimir Putin’s “reckless actions … could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe”.

In an interview with foreign newspapers, the Prime Minister said the UN’s atomic watchdog needed to be deployed on the ground to ensure that Ukraine’s nuclear plants remained safe even if they fell into Russian hands.

On Friday night, he said: “I think that the answers are very difficult.

“We have to make clear to the Kremlin that a civilian nuclear disaster in Ukraine, another Chernobyl, is a disaster for Russia as well as for everybody.

“We remember what happened with Chernobyl, the radioactive clouds spread over the whole continent … I am concerned about how we stop a disaster.

“There are other Ukrainian plants and there are certainly other Ukrainian radioactive nuclear waste sites.

“One of the things we need to consider is how we’re going to work together to prevent such a disaster.”

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The attack brought the conflict to a perilous moment, with rockets and gunfire causing a fire on the site but fortunately there appears to be no sign of any radiation leaks.

The attack at Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, was condemned by Western leaders and raises the prospect of widening the war in Ukraine after nine days of conflict. No army has previously attacked an active nuclear facility.

In a video clip posted to Twitter on Friday evening, the Prime Minister said: “I cannot even imagine what you’re living through right now, or the outrage and heartbreak you must feel as everything you know and love is so inexplicably and brutally shattered.”

As the war enters its second weekend, Mr Johnson said “the world is turning its back on [Vladimir] Putin and his regime” and he “marvelled at [President Volodymyr Zelensky’s] bravery, his calm, his sense of purpose, just as I marvel at the heroism and resolve of the Ukrainian people”.

He added that the Russian president “has made a grave miscalculation”.

He said: “The free world is united in its resolve to stand up to his barbarism, and the fortitude and defiance of the Ukrainian people in the face of this unjust and unwarranted aggression is moving hearts around the world.”