The Kremlin is playing “ Russian roulette” threatening the world with a Chernobyl -style nuclear disaster by continuing to risk a breach at a Ukrainian power plant, experts have warned.
One security expert warned one wrong step could “blow the brains of the reactor all over Europe,” causing the deaths of many thousands of victims.
It came as Kyiv revealed the Zaporizhzhia nuke complex was on the brink of catastrophe when Russian shelling caused electricity supply to its reactors to be cut.
Officials claimed hours later that the plant had been reconnected to the grid and it is believed emergency generators were used to avoid disaster.
Ukraine 's president urged international bodies to act faster to force heavily-armed Russian troops to vacate the site which it is using as a nuclear shield.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian shelling had sparked fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the Zaporizhzhia plant from the grid.
Emergency generators ensured vital power supply to drive cooling and safety systems at the plant, run by Ukrainian workers watched over by Russian forces.
Zelensky said: "If our station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident.
" Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster.
“Every minute that Russian troops remain at the nuclear power station there is a risk of global radiation catastrophe.”
Nuclear experts say the risk of damage to the plant's spent nuclear fuel pools, its reactors or cuts in power to cool the pools could cause a meltdown.
Paul Bracken, a national security expert and professor at the Yale School of Management, said artillery shells or missiles could puncture the reactor walls and spread radiation.
He said it could: “...kill hundreds or thousands of people, and damage environmentally a far larger area reaching into Europe.
"Russian Roulette is a good metaphor because the Russians are spinning the chamber of the revolver, threatening to blow out the brains of the reactor all over Europe."
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday its forces had destroyed a U.S.-made M777 howitzer which it said Ukraine had used to shell the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February, captured the plant in March and has controlled it since, though Ukrainian technicians still operate it.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the site, fuelling fears of a nuclear disaster.
Russia's ground campaign has stalled in recent months after its troops were repelled from the capital Kyiv in the early weeks of the invasion.
But bitter fighting continues along the front lines to the south and east.
Russian forces control territory along Ukraine's Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, while the conflict has settled into a war of attrition in the eastern Donbas region.
On Friday explosions were heard in the early hours in the southern city of Mykolaiv, a key battleground as Russian forces push westwards to cut Ukraine off the Black Sea.
The Ukraine military said its forces had repulsed Russian assaults on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region and struck ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the southern Kherson region.
