ah ah ah ah, this is dw news coming to live from berlin. ukraine says russian forces have seized his largest nuclear power plant. that's after an early morning attack on the side caused a fire to break out in an adjacent training facility that fire is now out. and officials say there is no sign of radiation leak. native condemns rushes attack on the nuclear side ahead of a special summit of the alliance is foreign ministers, u. s. secretary state antony, lincoln's message to moscow. heading into the tops is if conflict comes, we are ready. and russia restrict access to independent news websites including

dw, that's as it's parliament approves a law that could see anyone publishing. so cold, fake news about its armed forces faced jail terms of up to 15 years. ah. hello, i'm terry martin. good to have you with us. ukrainian officials say russian forces have seized the zap, or is she a nuclear power plant in the southeast of the country responsible for about a quarter of ukraine's energy production. russian troops launched an attack on facility over night, leading to a fire plant, which is europe's largest ukraine's state emergency service, says it managed to put out the blaze and secure nuclear safety. authority say that radiation levels remain unchanged and are correspond on the ground says ukrainian workers are still in control of operations there resonate the laudermill zalinski

has accused russia of trying to repeat the chernobyl nuclear disaster saying, the incident underscored, the need to stop the fighting. if you wouldn't, we will, if there's an explosion you, that's the end for every one of, of the end for europe, europe would have to be evacuated more only urge in action by europe can stop. the russian troops do not allow the death of europe from a catastrophe, had a nuclear power plant more. let's bring in dr. charles casto. he's a u. s. nuclear safety expert who is involved in containing the fukushima nuclear disaster in japan. dr. customer, thanks for being with us. tell us what went through your mind when you heard that this ukrainian nuclear power plant was on fire. well obviously very, that's very troubling situation. there is no rational reason for an attack on a nuclear power plant. tell us how dangerous it is to have

a war being fought near a nuclear power plant. well, obviously that situation is troubling. however, as you seen with the state media talking about that it's stable, the operators are able to deal with these types of situations. we plan for the circulation and the design of the plan is very robust. nevertheless, that is not a challenge that you want to present to anyone to any operator, any new facility anywhere. what exactly do you have to watch out for me if tanks are firing, even if, if they're not targeting the plant itself, but somewhere near it, if a shell hit the nuclear power plant, what could happen? the most troubling situation would likely be with the spent fuel that stored in the facility and that spent fuel is contained, it has the containment structure around it, but nevertheless, is the part of the client and part of the fuel system that you would have to worry

about and we saw in the so cassim a case where they actually the earth attack human nuclear plant, the operators were able to maintain safety of the spent fuel facility. is there any international? sorry, go ahead. so the reactor isn't very well very robust and contain deep in the plants and it will be difficult to have us to have a serious release. however, that's something we always are concerned with. the spent fuel pools are somewhat more concerning. and as i said, that we have been a shown demonstrated that we can protect spent fuel pools. is there any international safety protocol for something like this for nuclear power plants in conflict? v i. e a has a response center, the department of energy, the nuclear regulatory commission, the united states,

and many other agencies. and they have been activated to monitor the situation. and there is remote monitoring of the radiation levels to be able to determine the severity of the accident. or the concern that we have in ukraine. but it's not such that when, when fighting is happening around a nuclear power plant, it's not that they shut it down. yes, typically what would happen is as if it was a hurricane or so soon, army, prior to that the plants would be shut down and safely secured at that point, then only then what you have left is the fuel itself, which would be protected. but the plan itself would likely be shut down, or would be shut down by the loss of extra power outside the facility. the plants are all likely shut down and secured. now, many people, not just in ukraine,

of many people are scared about this situation with ukraine's nuclear power plant being in the middle of a war zone. should they be concerned? well, you should be concerned the, the, the likelihood of a, it depends on the magnitude of any attack that might occur. the, as i said, it's very extremely robust of plants extremely robust and, and mostly it would be a area as we saw, a turnover and fukushima would be an area around the plant that would be most susceptible to damage. however, after food you see men after turnover, we learned a lot of lessons from those accidents and learned many countermeasures. and we can take to minimize the amount of radiation release from a reactor regardless of the accident that might occur. dr. cost, so thank you very much. that was dr. charles casto. he's a u. s. nuclear safety expert. thank turn

nato secretary general in stoughton back has condemned what he called russia's recklessness in attacking the nuclear power plant. he was speaking as the alliances for ministers gather for a special summit in brussels. we condemn the attacks on civilians on old. and i've also seen reports about the attack against the nuclear power plant. this just demonstrates the rick reckless vessel this war on the port, the sofa, and the 8th on the important o rashaw, withdrawing all its troops and engaging good faith in diplomatic efforts. well, joining me now is marcin bizarre ski. he's a senior advisor at the warsaw security forum. thanks for being with us. we're seeing ukrainian president log me zalinski is calling for a no fly zone over his country, presumably by nato up. poland is an important member of nato and shares a long border with ukraine. do you think nato would really be willing to impose a no fly zone over ukraine and risk a direct military confrontation with russia?

ah, thank you. sorry for the invitation. i'm very glad to be here. i think it as of this moment, the no fly zone and it is on the table. but i will underline at this moment, events are developing so quickly that honestly, it is very, very hard to predict how to will, how to unfold right now. the key element in terms of a possible no fly zone would be the protection of civilians or protection of something that we're increasingly calling the green corridors, which are a major priority to support and help the the civilian population which are in dire in dire straits and dire condition at the, at the moment, and i think this will be one of the 1st, the key elements, if the, if some kind of corridors can be of protected and how the agreements, from the recent sort of discussions between the russian delegation and the ukrainian delegation will be implemented that they're working anyway because we'll

have to have to do that. and i think this will be the 1st considerations around the no flies on. i don't think there's any at that you know, agreement at this moment to engage beyond to supply and to the delivery. ready of the, of ukrainian or the forces. but certainly this is the state of the 1st just for this moment for today present lensky zaleski is, he's also saying that a ukraine might not be the only country that bladder may putin has. his eyes on that he's a zalinski, is suggesting that vladimir putin might attack other countries surrounding ukraine . he mentioned poland by name. what do you make the i think we have to be very, very clear about the situation that we're in. and it is absolutely a risk adapter that we have to take into consideration. he,

he is an unpredictable man. and we see really that the, that there is a madman steering up the atrocious, or if we're right now, so with the baltic, states are in greatest risk. poland is also an at risk. now, it might seem odd, implausible, at this point, but that is something that has to be taken into consideration if there is a major escalation. now what it means also that the efforts in the tyrants needs to be increased because this is the only thing that a coating will listen to. and if he, if he is sure that he cannot win in any way. and this will only happen if the support that is being provided right now to ukraine. the military support is increased. that is being delivered much, much faster than it is right now, because this is becoming an issue. and that's a that there is extremely clear and messaging signs,

including right now strengthening the eastern flag significantly with troop deployments from, from nato countries to the baltic states, to poland, to romania, to show putting that we are serious about this. beyond, beyond any doubt, the view of the threat from russia from central in eastern europe is often different from the view here in western europe. do you see alignment happening now more as a result of the ukraine conflict? oh, good. we do see this changes, and of course i think that the biggest sign of it was that it was a chancellor r sholtes recently speech and the dish pack tonic ship them in german policy often but, but this is something that, that has to really be sustained this is not time to be saying, though we told you, so what's gonna happen here. this is a time for a united front. this is

a 1949 moment where we have a clear aggressor. when we have an imperial, revisionist, an invasion of a democratic country, and where everybody has to throw out any doubt, this is not the fight for ukraine. this is a fight for european security. this is a fight for a way of life, of, of germans and polls and, and, and, and french and, and, and brits so, so we really need to step up here as a united front, a commitment to alpha military support has to be at very, very clear and there can be, at no doubt for puttin that if he escalates, he will be met with it would full month. now we have the words coming out of the going to happen. but we also need the deployment of, of troops. and 1st and most, we need to support you crane and any possible way in terms of arms in terms of a little equipment to fight this war because they are fighting it for us. nato has

boosted it's defensive troop presence in eastern europe, talking about deterrence. is it enough to deter any russian attack on nato countries? well, this is, this is certainly a morbid diplomatic signed and not truly a military operational one. i think it would need to be increased further if we were to truly engage in a confrontation of that scenario that could, that could roll out in many ways. but i think we still have to see the hail of the military operation, which will unfold, particularly in the west of ukraine to, to judge that. and what are the forces in belarus are, are engaged to, to cut off the border. this is the, this is one of our 1st and foremost important concerns right now, because this is where the supply channels are coming in to ukraine and daily to be ready to enforce, stripe power at the moment. marcin good talking to you. that was marcin brozowski

from the warsaw policy from the warsaw security for thank you very much. my pleasure. thank you very much. dark. meanwhile, the russian government has introduced drastic new measures to clamp down on descent amid growing opposition to the war among russians. on friday morning, the parliament passed legislation banning the spread of information critical of russia's war or military violations could carry up to 15 years in prison. with free speech advocates warning, it will dramatically increase censorship. this just hours after the countries media watched are restricted access to dw and other international media websites. earlier this week, popular echo mosque, the radio station and independent, deutsche the tv channel. we're also shut down at your door. let's get more on what's happening in russia with our dw russian affairs analyst,

konstantin exit. he joined us from talk to in estonia today. od constantine, tell us more about the media legislation that the duma has just passed. well, it, it mo, told her just blanket kansas she coverage of everything that can ever be said about not only this war, bug bass can you about any actual russian government because anything can be linked to all and it does carry a maximum center. so 15 years, although there are degrees within the law, it starts with find and then goes all the way up as the size. 16. yes. in case there is irreparable damage. what is an irreparable damage? what is a grave damage? how do you measure it? there's nothing about it. so basically it is a law that is designed to scare.