The Russian Defense Ministry said there had been more Ukrainian shelling of the plant in the past 24 hours, just a day after Moscow and Kyiv exchanged accusations of targeting Europe’s largest nuclear plant, sparking serious international concern. read more Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said it had no new information about attacks at the plant. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Captured by Russian troops in March but still run by Ukrainian personnel, the compound on the southern frontline of the war has been one of the highlights of the six-month conflict. Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh told Telegram on Sunday that Russian forces hit residential buildings in the region’s main city of Zaporizhzhia, about a two-hour drive from the plant, and the city of Orikhiv further east. On Saturday, Starukh said Ukrainian television residents were being taught how to use iodine in the event of a radioactive leak. Ukraine’s military reported shelling of nine more towns in the region across the Dnipro River from the plant in its daily report, while the RIA news agency cited the Russian Defense Ministry as saying its air force hit a Motor Sich (MSICH.UAX) factory in the region. where helicopters were repaired. Reuters was unable to verify these reports. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said nine shells fired by Ukrainian artillery in two separate attacks hit the nuclear plant. “Currently, full-time technical staff are monitoring the technical condition of the nuclear power plant and ensuring its operation. The radiation situation in the area of the nuclear power plant remains normal,” it said in a statement. The United Nations and Kyiv have called for his withdrawal military equipment and personnel from the factory to ensure it is not a target. read more
EPIRUS IN DANGER
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russian forces turned the plant into a military base, endangering the entire continent, and had no business being there. “The Russian army must leave the factory,” he tweeted. The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is awaiting permission for its officials to visit the plant, which its chief said Thursday should be “very, very close.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned on Friday that the situation in Zaporizhzhia remained “very dangerous”, a day after it took hours to reconnect two of its reactors to the grid after shelling knocked them out. read more On Ukraine’s eastern front, Ukrainian forces stopped the last Russian attempt to advance on the city of Sloviansk, Kiev’s military said in its daily report. The defenders have thwarted Russian attempts to infiltrate around the strategic city of Bakhmut to extend control over the Donbas region after Moscow seized Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk weeks ago, the military said. According to regional governors, the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk province were shelled by Russian forces overnight, but there were no reports of new casualties. Reuters could not verify these accounts. President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Russia’s neighbor on February 24, saying a “special operation” was needed to demilitarize the country and remove perceived security threats to Russia. Ukraine and the West have dismissed it as a flimsy pretext for an imperialist war of conquest that has killed thousands, displaced tens of millions, reduced cities to rubble and threatened the global economy with energy and food supply crises, sending prices skyrocketing. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Kuleba would travel to Sweden on Monday, followed by a trip to the Czech Republic on Tuesday as part of Kiev’s efforts to boost international support for Ukraine and push for more sanctions pressure on Russia. In Prague, he will attend an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss new sanctions on Moscow and an EU-wide visa ban for Russians. Zelensky called for such a ban earlier this month, but so far he has found support mainly from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which share a border with Russia. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Max Hunder and Pavel Polityuk in the Kyiv and Reuters bureaus. Written by Tomasz Janowski. Editing by Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
