The Russian military advance in Ukraine sowed more destruction and chaos, pointing to a worsening conflict, as the Kremlin also moved to restrict how it’s reported at home.
Russian forces in Ukraine seized Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant on Friday, tightened their noose around the capital and threatened more southern cities in their march to control the Black Sea coast, intensifying the deadly destruction and chaos from the eight-day-old invasion. The Russian military advance, punctuated by a firefight with Ukrainian forces at the nuclear plant and shelling of other areas, came as the Kremlin strengthened its own crackdown at home on how the invasion was reported, including enacting stiff prison penalties for criticism, a ban on Facebook and other social media restrictions. At least four major Western news outlets suspended operations in Russia. The developments all pointed to a worsening crisis for Europe and the world as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia showed no inclination to soften his goal of taking control of Ukraine, the former Soviet republic of 44 million that is now at the center of an intense new Cold War between Russia and the West. As Russian troops moved deeper into the Ukrainian heartland, the number of civilians headed toward the western border to escape the onslaught increased sharply. In the western city of Lviv, the train station was swamped with desperate civilians seeking refuge from the Russian assault. “We had 30,000 people arrive last night,” a lawmaker, Viktoria Khrystenko, said at the station. “Tonight, we will have 100,000.” The rising flight of civilians came as Ukraine said Russian forces were now occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility after an early-morning battle and fire there had raised worldwide alarms. It said that all of the site’s power units remained intact and that no changes in radiation levels had been observed. Russia and Ukraine accused each other of having recklessly damaged the nuclear site in southern Ukraine in a fight for control, and the precise cause of the fire was unclear. But the mere possibility of a radiation leak in Ukraine, home to the world’s worst nuclear accident in Chernobyl 36 years ago, invited new global rebukes aimed at Russia. “By the grace of God, the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council at an emergency session that was convened to discuss the new hazards raised by Russia’s armed takeover of Zaporizhzhia. Mr. Putin “must stop this madness, and stop it now,” she said. Britain’s ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said the firefight was “the first time a state has attacked a fueled and functioning nuclear power plant.” Russia’s ambassador, Vasily A. Nebenzya, denied that the country’s military had targeted the plant, and he accused Ukraine and its Western allies of having incited “artificial hysteria.” Mr. Nebenzya maintained that Russian forces patrolling outside of the nuclear plant had come under fire from Ukrainian militants inside a training building and had returned fire. He said the Ukrainians then set the building ablaze.
