Zelenskiy says Ukrainian forces trying to prevent Russian capture of Chernobyl

KYIV (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukrainian forces were fighting to prevent Russian troops from capturing the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl.

Elsewhere, parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region were no longer under Kyiv’s control, the regional administration said, as Russian forces attacked by land, sea and air.

The Ukrainian President said Ukraine was listening to the sound of a new iron curtain falling as Russian troops advanced across his country’s territory and he warned that other European countries may be next.

“What we have heard today are not just missile blasts, fighting and the rumble of aircraft. This is the sound of a new iron curtain, which has come down and is closing Russia off from the civilised world,” Zelenskiy said.

“Our national task is to make sure this curtain does not fall across our land.”

(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Alison Williams)