Ukraine’s biggest nuclear plant, which is surrounded by Russian troops, has lost all external power needed for safety systems for the second time in five days, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, calling it a “deeply worrying development.”
The warning from International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi came amid a flurry of developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military command said that its forces recaptured five settlements in the southern Kherson region, on the western fringe of a zone under Russian control, and Russia’s top domestic security agency said eight people had been arrested in connection with the weekend Crimea bridge blast.
Photo: AP
Grossi, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, said that agency monitors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) — Europe’s largest nuclear power facility — reported the interruption in external power, and said backup diesel generators were keeping nuclear safety and security equipment operational.
“This repeated loss of #ZNPP’s off-site power is a deeply worrying development and it underlines the urgent need for a nuclear safety & security protection zone around the site,” Grossi wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said on the Telegram social media platform that a Russian missile attack on the substation Dniprovska in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region to the north led to the shutdown of a key communications line to the plant — prompting the diesel generators to turn on automatically.
Photo: Reuters
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine’s southern command said that its forces recaptured five settlements in the southern Kherson region.
The villages of Novovasylivka, Novohryhorivka, Nova Kamianka, Tryfonivka and Chervone in Beryslav District were retaken as of Tuesday, said Vladislav Nazarov, the southern command’s spokesman.
The settlements are in one of the four regions recently annexed by Russia.
Also on Wednesday, Russia’s top domestic security agency said that it arrested eight people on charges of involvement in the bombing of the main bridge linking Russia to Crimea, while an official in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia said Russian forces carried out more strikes there.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said it arrested five Russians, and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia over Saturday’s attack that damaged the Kerch Bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula — a crucial thoroughfare for supplies.
The FSB said that the suspects were working on orders of Ukraine’s military intelligence to secretly move the explosives into Russia and forge the accompanying documents.
It said the explosives were moved by sea from the Ukrainian port of Odesa to Bulgaria before being shipped to Georgia, driven to Armenia and then back to Georgia before being transported to Russia in a complex scheme to secretly deliver them to the target.
Putin said that Ukrainian special services masterminded the blast, calling it “an act of terrorism,” and responded by ordering a barrage of missile strikes on Ukraine, which continued yesterday.
“It brings anger, not fear,” Kyiv resident Volodymyr Vasylenko, 67, said of the strikes as crews worked to restore traffic lights and clear debris from the capital’s streets. “We already got used to this. And we will keep fighting.”
The leaders of the G7 condemned the bombardment and said they would “stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the G7 leaders during a virtual meeting that Russia fired more than 100 missiles and dozens of drones at Ukraine over two days.
He appealed for “more modern and effective” air defense systems — even though he said Ukraine shot down many of the Russian projectiles.
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced plans to deliver the first two advanced NASAMs anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
The systems, which Kyiv has long wanted, would provide medium to long-range defense against missile attacks.
In a telephone call with Zelenskiy on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden “pledged to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems,” the White House said.
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on Twitter that four German IRIS-T air defense systems had just arrived, saying a “new era” of air defense for Ukraine had begun.
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