“The fire at the Zaporizhzhya NPP has already been extinguished and the shelling by Russian forces has stopped at about 3 am,” Orlov said.

Ukraine’s emergency services confirmed that the safety of the plant is now secured after a fire broke out at a training building when the station came under fire from Russian forces.

“At 06:20, the fire in the training building of the Zaporizhia NPP in Energodar was eliminated. There were no casualties,” it said in a statement on Facebook.

Initial reports from the Ukrainian regulator of Nuclear Power to the International Atomic Energy Agency did not report any increased radiation at the site.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world.

It is in southeastern Ukraine near the city of Enerhodar, on the southern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper River.

The plant generates nearly half of the country's electricity derived from nuclear power and more than a fifth of the total electricity generated in Ukraine. (ILKHA)