Russian troops have opened fire in a Ukrainian town next to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after entering it with tanks, a Ukrainian official has said.
Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said in online posts today that the forces had taken control of the area around the Zaporizhzhia plant in south-eastern Ukraine, after entering in tanks.
Earlier, Mr Herashchenko said Russian troops were stepping up efforts to seize control of the power plant.
The plant's workers live in the nearby town of Energodar.
It comes as Russia has already captured the defunct Chernobyl plant, some 100 km north of Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
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Kremlin troops stormed the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the first day of the invasion.
Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the area in the north of the country may have led to damage at the facility, although these reports are yet to be independently verified.
Earlier this afternoon, crowds of brave Ukrainians formed a human barricade in front of Zaporizhzhia, lining the road leading to the plant in a bid to prevent Russian troops from seizing it.
The move of defiance came after Kyiv warned Russia risked creating “a new Chernobyl” if it went ahead with an attack.
And this morning the UN nuclear watchdog voiced concern after Russian forces claimed to have surrounded Zaporizhzhia, and called for its workers to be left alone to do their jobs.
According to Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Russian government had informed the agency that its troops had taken control of the area around the Zaporizhzhia plant - which housed six of the country’s 15 reactors.
Anton Gerashchenko, the interior ministry official, said in a Facebook post: “Russian generals – change your minds! Do not create conditions for the new Chernobyl!
"Radiation knows no nationalities, one does not spare anyone! Go around the Energodar and Zaporizhzhya.”
Ukraine had requested that the IAEA declare a 30km safe zone around Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants.
News of gunfire in the worrying new battleground comes as Vladimir Putin has today claimed Ukraine is using civilians and foreigners as "human shields" - while his forces bomb densely-populated areas.
The outrageous claim came during a day of continued attacks on cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv, which have suffered intense damage.
Attempts to seize both cities have failed so Kremlin forces have instead resorted to heavy bombing, causing thousands of civilian casualties.
The city of Kherson has been taken by Russian troops but elsewhere the invaders have met with fierce Ukraine resistance.
Negotiations began between the Russian and Ukrainian sides at about 3pm GMT, with a humanitarian corridor to evacuate citizens agreed by 5.30pm.
Earlier today an airstrike on an apartment block in Chernihiv killed 22 civilians.
