Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Putin’s forces seize nuclear power plant after shelling starts fire – live | World news

British immigration minister Kevin Foster has refused to seem earlier than a parliamentary committee to clarify the nation’s response to the rising Ukrainian refugee disaster.

The house affairs committee has urged him to rethink “given the urgency of the scenario”.

In an announcement, it mentioned:

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for immigration and future borders, Kevin Foster MP, has declined an invite from the house affairs committee to provide proof on the UK’s response to the Ukraine refugee disaster.

The committee had issued the invitation to grasp what the UK was doing to offer assist and refuge to individuals leaving Ukraine following the invasion by Russia. It’s estimated that 1 million individuals have been displaced by the battle.

Given the urgency of the scenario, the committee has requested the minister to rethink.

Following the hearth on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant the director basic of the Worldwide Atomic Power Authority, Rafael Mariano Grossi, mentioned on Friday that he has provided to journey to the Chernobyl web site to facilitate a negotiation between Ukraine and Russia.

The purpose could be to agree a framework to ensure security of nuclear vegetation throughout the battle, together with how to make sure the bodily integrity of websites, sustaining energy, security monitoring programs and that employees at websites are in a position to fulfil duties. Each side are contemplating the proposal.

“The scenario continues to be extraordinarily tense and difficult,” mentioned Grossi. He added:

The bodily integrity of the plant has been compromised with what occurred final evening. we’re lucky that there was no launch of radiation and the integrity of the reactors themselves weren’t compromised.

I’ve indicated to each the Russian Federation and Ukraine my availability and disposition to journey to Chernobyl as quickly as attainable.

Two consultants have provided some reassurance that the army exercise at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant is unlikely to trigger a significant nuclear incident.

Dr Mark Wenman, reader in nuclear supplies at Imperial School London, mentioned:

The Zaporizhzia nuclear plant has six VVER-1000 pressurised water reactor models producing 20% of Ukraine’s electrical energy.

The plant is a comparatively fashionable reactor design and as such the important reactor parts are housed inside a closely metal strengthened concrete containment constructing that may face up to excessive exterior occasions, each pure and man-made, similar to an plane crash or explosions.

The reactor core is itself additional housed in a sealed metal stress vessel with 20cm thick partitions. The design is loads totally different to the Chernobyl reactor, which didn’t have a containment constructing, and therefore there isn’t a actual danger, in my view, on the plant now the reactors have been safely shut down.

Prof Tom Scott, on the College of Bristol, UK mentioned:

Shelling nuclear energy vegetation is in opposition to the Geneva conventions and that is clearly very worrying. The excellent news is that radiation ranges across the plant are reportedly regular and 5 of the six reactors at the moment are turned off, with one nonetheless working.

The reactors are all pressurised water reactors and therefore don’t have graphite cores which might set on hearth as per Chernobyl. Their inherent security design ought to imply they’re naturally fairly resilient to any exterior perturbations and therefore I’m not overly involved that inadvertent harm might trigger a significant nuclear incident.

Nevertheless, it could be extra regarding if the reactors have been being intentionally focused to induce a nuclear incident.

Forward of a busy day of diplomacy in Brussels, Nato’s secretary basic Jens Stontenberg has mentioned the assaults by Russia on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – the most important in Europe – spotlight the “recklessness” of Vladimir Putin’s conflict.

He mentioned:

We condemn the assaults on civilians and in a single day we’ve got additionally seen the experiences in regards to the assaults in opposition to a nuclear energy plant. This simply reveals the recklessness of this conflict and the significance of ending it.

And the significance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and interesting in good religion in diplomatic efforts.

British international secretary Liz Truss is in Brussels for a gathering of Nato ministers and later she’s going to be a part of EU international ministers who’re additionally internet hosting Ukraine’s international minister Dmytro Kuleba, US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, Canada’s international minister Mélanie Joly and Stoltenberg.

Within the UK, the mayor of Salford has written to Michael Gove to ask for assist to chop ties with the Russian power agency Gazprom, warning that “state-owned and/or backed Russian organisations and companies are nonetheless woven inextricably into the supply of Native Authorities companies inside the UK”.

Paul Dennett desires his native authority to not need to renew its non-domestic pure gasoline contract with Gazprom, agreed in June 2020 when the Russian agency far outbid home suppliers.

He says that councils throughout the nation additionally use Gazprom as a result of it’s so less expensive than different firms and so mechanically wins procurement competitions.

Gazprom additionally supplies power to a lot of NHS trusts. On Thursday, the well being secretary Sajid Javid started talks with NHS England (NHSE) over ending the contracts, that are reported by Politico to have been value £16m in 2021.

“Our contract can be up for renewal in June, and I don’t want for public cash to be spent in direction of the revenue of the Russian state throughout the current army disaster in Ukraine. Nevertheless, at current beneath the present spherical of sanctions and/or guidelines, such issues would seemingly not be thought-about legally related in assessing Gazprom’s suitability for profitable the following tendering train (or not),” Dennett writes in a letter to Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up.

Dennett says Salford is absolutely supportive of the federal government’s acknowledged ambitions to “inflict devastating penalties on President Vladimir Putin and Russia” following Russia’s unprovoked assault on the sovereign nation of Ukraine, utilizing sanctions and different monetary measures.

“Nevertheless, state-owned and/or backed Russian organisations and companies are nonetheless woven inextricably into the supply of native authorities companies inside the UK, and at current their involvement in bidding for tenders and contracts is enshrined in UK public procurement rules for the procurement and tendering of companies,” writes Dennett.

He desires Gove to vary the legislation to make it simpler for native authorities to interrupt ties with Gazprom and cease Gazprom pitching for alternative contracts, even when it means having to pay extra for municipal power.