"10 times larger than Chernobyl": What we need to know about Europe's largest nuclear power plant

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The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant -Europe's largest nuclear power station situated in Ukraine is on fire after Russian troops fired from all sides in a shelling attack.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Russian troops to stop the attack after the fire broke out and warned that the fallout from a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia plant would be magnitudes worse.

The Russian military had bombarded cities in Ukraine with shells and missiles, forcing civilians to cower in basements, including in Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

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"If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone," Kuleba tweeted. He wrote that the Russian forces were firing at the facility "from all sides".

The Zaporizhzhia  plant accounts for about one quarter of Ukraine’s power generation.

“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram. “There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe.”

Also Read: Russians begin shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant

Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells were falling directly on the Zaporizhzhia plant and had set fire to one of the facility’s six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, but there is nuclear fuel inside, he said. Firefighters cannot get near the fire because they are being shot at, Tuz added.

The fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station broke out in a training building outside the plant's perimeter, the state emergency service said in a statement, reported Reuters.

Separately, the plant's director told Ukraine 24 TV radiation security had been secured at the site.

The Ukrainian officials later clarified to the atomic watchdog agency of United Nations (UN) - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there was no change in radiation levels at the nuclear plant.

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency has already urged Russia to "cease all actions" at Ukraine's nuclear facilities, including the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.