Should there be a radiation leak at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant then “depending on which way the wind blows” then NATO could chose to see this as an “act of war.”

Both Russia and Ukraine are blaming each other for the shelling attacks on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and this could prove fatal the United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned as it would spread lethal radiation across Europe.

Major General Chip Chapman warned that should any radiation reach any NATO country then this could rapidly escalate into a full scale military response against Vladimir Putin.

Major General Chapman told Times Radio, “We know that security pillars have all been compromised to an extent at the nuclear power plant.

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“But there isn’t a big radiation element at the moment.

“And of course, if it does leak then from a NATO perspective, depending on where the wind blows, that could be seen as an article 5 act of war if NATO chose to see it.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned in a report following their inspection of the nuclear facility that urgent measures are need to prevent a “nuclear accident.”

The report said, “Pending the end of the conflict and re-establishment of stable conditions there is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident arising from physical damage caused by military means.”

The IAEA inspectors said that they first hand had witnessed “shelling in the vicinity” of the nuclear facility and that they are “gravely concerned about the situation.

Whilst the IAEA inspection team were at the facility they said, “in particular on September 3 when the team was instructed to evacuate the ground level of the Administrative Building.”

The IAEA’s director general Rafael Grossi, who led an inspection warned of a potential imminent nuclear disaster.

Grossi warned, “We are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place.

“This is why in our report, we are proposing the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone limited to the perimeter and the plant itself.”

Following the IAEA’s report top Ukrainian officials have ordered their citizens on Wednesday who live near to the nuclear power plant to “evacuate” and try and “find a way to get to territories controlled by Kyiv.”

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told people on Telegram, “I appeal to the residents of the districts adjacent to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant… Evacuate!”

Major General Chapman was asked can the international community do anything, he said, “not really.”

“Because obviously, the two UN inspectors are still there after the IAEA did their formal and larger inspection.

He added that the Russian shelling on the plant is all part of “Putin’s ploy – a deterrence by fear.”

He continued, “And of course, it should be that the moral authority of the UN is the thing which gets Russia to disengage with that.

“But as we well know, the UN is largely a forum where the interests of the larger, more dominant powers are in the fall and other states coalesce around their interests as we’ve seen, for example, in bizarre states like Syria and North Korea, acknowledging the new form of the Donetsk and Luhansk at being independent states as so-called form their perspective.”